ou see my profit: you will stay with me
Willingly there forever, to my ends
An interested assistant. I will serve
Forth on my tables such delicious fare
That you will freely choose to be my guest
Through time and through eternity. I say:
Fie for a bond written in scrawly blood!
A bond of choice is better. Could a saint
Speak fairer to you? I risk everything,
And you risk nothing but a little time;
And time, as you are placed, seems not so dear
That you need hoard it.

FAUST

But your ends are--what?

SATAN

How can it matter now--if seeing them
You shall approve them?

FAUST

Are you serious?

SATAN

My jests have other aspect.

FAUST

I accept.
Your game is to my taste. For thirty years
Have I made search through all the lands of earth,
The realms of learning, and the tangled groves
Of fancy, for some region which my soul
Might with entire approval view; but none
Has been vouchsafed me. If the Devil can
In this surpass the world's established powers,
Then I am his disciple willingly....
But if you fail, friend Satan!--I shall tie
You to a cart's tail and exhibit you
Like a dead whale throughout the country--or
Make you curator of an orphanage!

SATAN

I shall not fail.

OLDHAM (_enters_)

I beg your pardon, Faust;
I thought you'd be alone. My brother left,
Not waiting for me; and, as I passed by,
I saw your lights, and thought I would look in
Just for a moment. I had things to say
That are perhaps much better left unsaid.
Good-bye, my dear friend. I will not disturb you.
Good night again.

FAUST

Wait, Oldham; do not go.
I have a visitor whose name you know,
But not, perhaps, his person. Let me have
The pleasure of presenting you. This is
The Devil--Mr. Oldham.

OLDHAM

You are mad!
What jest is this?

SATAN

I am indeed the Devil.
Look in my eyes intently.... Shall I tell you
Your thought, two minutes since?... Or what you hold
Clutched now against your side?... _Or where you go
When you go hence to-night?_...

OLDHAM

No!... I believe you....
Although it is incredible!...

FAUST

You come
Just at the proper moment for good-bye,
For I am going with him on a journey,
And do not know how soon I shall return.
If I return at all.

OLDHAM