“It looks like a tremendous amount of work,” I evaded.
“It was a tremendous amount of work.” For the first time I noticed that her cheeks were flushed. She had lost weight and there were deep hollows beneath her eyes. “This construction has been the least of it. Now it’s done. Or has begun. Depending how you look at it.”
“All done?”
She nodded, triumph accenting the strained look on her face. “First test today.”
“Oh well ... in that case—” “Don’t go, Hodge. Please. I meant to ask you and Catty to the more formal trial, but now youre here for the preliminary I’m glad. Ace and Father and Oliver will be along in a minute.”
“Midbin?”
The familiar arrogance showed briefly. “I insisted. It’ll be nice to show him the mind can produce something besides fantasies and hysterical hallucinations.”
I started to speak, then swallowed my words. The dig at Catty was insignificant compared with the supreme confidence, the abnormal assurance prompting invitations to witness a test which could only reveal the impossibility of applying her cherished theories. I felt an overwhelming pity. “Surely,” I said at last, seeking to make some preparation for the disillusionment certain to come, “surely you don’t expect it to work the first time?”
“Why not? There are sure to be adjustments to be made, allowances for erratic chronology caused by phenomena like the pull of comets and so forth. There might even have to be major alterations, though I doubt it. It may be some time before Ace can set me down at the exact year, month, day, hour and minute agreed upon. But the fact of space-time-energy-matter correspondence can just as well be established this afternoon as next year.”
She was unbelievably at ease for someone whose lifework was about to be weighed. I have shown more nervousness discussing a disputed date with the honorary secretary of a local historical society.