"I handed her two call slips:

One for Revelation of Fire, the other for a calendar of Russian saints. She glanced at the slips indifferently, got up from her chair, and left. I waited in the reading-room, savouring in anticipation the three moments of high drama experienced by every bibliophile: the first time you see the longed-for book at a distance; the first time you hold it in your hand; the first time you open it."

Revelation of Fire