‘I am a man of business,’ he said, ‘and always I would put things through “right now,” as they say in the States. You are a poet. Les affaires—you detest them. So be it. But with me you will deal, eh? What you have said just now gives me furiously to hope.’
Soames had not moved, except to light a fresh cigarette. He sat crouched forward, with his elbows squared on the table, and his head just above the level of his hands, staring up at the Devil. ‘Go on,’ he nodded. I had no remnant of laughter in me now.
‘It will be the more pleasant, our little deal,’ the Devil went on, ‘because you are—I mistake not?—a Diabolist.’
‘A Catholic Diabolist,’ said Soames.
The Devil accepted the reservation genially. ‘You wish,’ he resumed, ‘to visit now—this afternoon as-ever-is—the reading-room of the British Museum, yes? but of a hundred years hence, yes? Parfaitement. Time—an illusion. Past and future—they are as ever-present as the present, or at any rate only what you call “just-round-the-corner.” I switch you on to any date. I project you—pouf! You wish to be in the reading-room just as it will be on the afternoon of June 3, 1997? You wish to find yourself standing in that room, just past the swing-doors, this very minute, yes? and to stay there till closing time? Am I right?’
Soames nodded.
The Devil looked at his watch. ‘Ten past two,’ he said. ‘Closing time in summer same then as now: seven o’clock. That will give you almost five hours. At seven o’clock—pouf!—you find yourself again here, sitting at this table. I am dining to-night dans le monde—dans le higlif. That concludes my present visit to your great city. I come and fetch you here, Mr. Soames, on my way home.’
‘Home?’ I echoed.
‘Be it never so humble!’ said the Devil lightly.
‘All right,’ said Soames.