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Men Like Gods Book 1 Chapter 7 - The Bringing in of Lord Barronga's Party · The H. G. Wells Library

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Speaker 1: Section seven of Men Like Gods. This is a LibriVox recording.
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Speaker 1: All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more
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Speaker 1: by Marcus Pfeiffer Tyson's Virginia www dot Voxwright dot com.
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Speaker 1: Men Like Gods by H. G. Wells. Chapter the seventh,
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Speaker 1: The bringing in of Lord Barallanga's Party, Part one. The
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Speaker 1: conference broke up upon this announcement, but Lord Barallanga and
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Speaker 1: his party were not brought to the conference gardens until
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Speaker 1: long after dark. No effort was made to restrain or
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Speaker 1: control the movements of the earthlings. Mister Burley walked down
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Speaker 1: to the lake with Lady Stella and the psychologist whose
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Speaker 1: name was Lyon, asking and answering questions. Mister Burley's chauffeur
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Speaker 1: wandered rather disconsolately, keeping within hail of his employer. Mister
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Speaker 1: Rupert Catskill, took mister mush Off by the arm as
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Speaker 1: if to give him instructions. Mister Barnstable wanted to walk
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Speaker 1: about alone, to recall and digest the astounding realizations of
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Speaker 1: the afternoon, and to accustom himself to the wonder of
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Speaker 1: this beautiful world, so beautiful, and now in the twilight,
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Speaker 1: so mysterious, also, with its trees and flowers becoming dim
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Speaker 1: and shapeless notes of pallor and blackness, and with the
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Speaker 1: clear forms and gracious proportions of its buildings melting into
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Speaker 1: a twilight indistinctness. The earthiness of his companions intervened between
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Speaker 1: him in the world into which he felt like he
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Speaker 1: might otherwise have been accepted and absorbed. He was in it,
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Speaker 1: but in it only as a strange and discordant intruder.
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Speaker 1: Yet he loved it already, and desired it, and was
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Speaker 1: passionately anxious to become a part of it. He had
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Speaker 1: a vague but very power powerful feeling that if only
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Speaker 1: he could get away from his companions, if only, in
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Speaker 1: some way he could cast off his earthly clothing and
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Speaker 1: everything upon him that marked him as earthly and linked
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Speaker 1: him to Earth, he would, by the very act of
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Speaker 1: casting that off, become himself a native to Utopia. And
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Speaker 1: then that this tormenting sense, this bleak, distressing strangeness, would
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Speaker 1: vanish out of his mind. He would suddenly find himself
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Speaker 1: a utopian in nature and reality, and it was Earth
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Speaker 1: that would become the incredible dream, a dream that would
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Speaker 1: fade at last completely out of his mind. For a time, however,
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Speaker 1: Father Emerton's need of a hearer prevented any such detachment
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Speaker 1: from earthly thoughts and things. He stuck close to mister
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Speaker 1: Barnstable and maintained a stream of questions and comments that
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Speaker 1: threw over this utopian scene the quality of some Earl's
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Speaker 1: Court exhibition that the two of them were visiting and
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Speaker 1: criticizing together. It was evidently so provisional, so disputable and
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Speaker 1: unreal to him that at any moment mister Barnsable felt
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Speaker 1: he would express no astonishment if a rift in the
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Speaker 1: scenery suddenly let in the clatter of the Earl's Court
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Speaker 1: railway station, or gave a glimpse of the conventional Gothic
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Speaker 1: spire of Saint Barnabas in the west. At first, Father
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Speaker 1: Emerton's mind was busy, chiefly with the fact that on
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Speaker 1: the morrow he was to be dealt with on account
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Speaker 1: of the scene and the conference. How can they deal
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Speaker 1: with me? He said, for the fourth time, I beg
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Speaker 1: your pardon, said mister Barnstable. Every time mister Emerton began speaking,
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Speaker 1: mister Barnstable said, I beg your pardon, in order to
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Speaker 1: convey to him that he was interrupting a train of thought.
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Speaker 1: But every time mister Barnstable said I beg your pardon,
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Speaker 1: mister Emerton would merely remark you ought to consult someone
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Speaker 1: about your hearing, and then go on with what he
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Speaker 1: had to say. How can I be dealt with, he
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Speaker 1: asked mister Barnstable in the circumendis dusk? How can I
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Speaker 1: be dealt with? Ol psychoanalysis or something of that sort,
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Speaker 1: said mister Barnstable. It takes two to play at that game,
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Speaker 1: said Father Emerton. But it seemed to mister Barnstable with
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Speaker 1: the slight favor of relief in his tone. Whatever they
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Speaker 1: ask me, whatever they suggest to me, I will not fail.
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Speaker 1: I will bear my witness. I have no doubt they
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Speaker 1: will find it hard to suppress you, said mister Barnstable bitterly.
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Speaker 1: For a time they walked among the tall, sweet smelling,
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Speaker 1: white flowered shrubs in silence. Now and then mister Barnstable
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Speaker 1: would quicken or slacken his pace with the idea of
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Speaker 1: increasing his distance from Father Emerton. But quite mechanically, Father
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Speaker 1: Emerton responded to these efforts promiscuity, He began again. Presently,
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Speaker 1: what other word could you use? I really beg your pardon,
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Speaker 1: said mister Barnstable. What other word could I have used?
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Speaker 1: But promiscuity? What else could one expect with people running
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Speaker 1: about in this amazing want of costume? But the morals
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Speaker 1: of a monkey's cage. They admit that our institution of
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Speaker 1: marriage is practically unknown to them. It's a different world,
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Speaker 1: said mister Barnstable, irritably, a different world. The laws of
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Speaker 1: morality hold good for every conceivable world. But in a
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Speaker 1: world in which people propagated by fission and there was
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Speaker 1: no sex, morality would be simpler, but it would be
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Speaker 1: the same morality. Presently, mister Barnstable was begging his pardon again.
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Speaker 1: I was saying that this is a lost world. It
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Speaker 1: doesn't look lost, said mister Barnstable. It has rejected and
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Speaker 1: forgotten salvation. Mister Barnstable put his hands in his pockets
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Speaker 1: and began to whistle the Barker roll from the Tales
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Speaker 1: of Hoffmann very softly to himself. Would Father Emerton never
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Speaker 1: leave him? Could nothing be done with Father Emerton? At
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Speaker 1: the old shows at Earl's Court, there used to be
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Speaker 1: wire baskets for waste paper and cigarette ends and boors. Generally,
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Speaker 1: if one could only tip Father Emerton suddenly into some
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Speaker 1: such receptacle. Salvation has been offered them, and they have
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Speaker 1: rejected it and well nigh forgotten it. And that is
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Speaker 1: why we have been sent to them. We have been
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Speaker 1: sent to them to recall them to the one thing
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Speaker 1: that matters, to the one forgotten thing. Once more, we
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Speaker 1: have to raise the healing symbol as Moses raised it
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Speaker 1: in the wilderness. Ours is no light mission. We have
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Speaker 1: been sent into this hell of sensuous materialism. Oh Lord,
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Speaker 1: said mister Barnstable, and relapsed into the barquerole. I beg
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Speaker 1: your pardon, he exclaimed again. Presently, where's the pulse star?
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Speaker 1: What has happened to the wine? Mister Barnstable looked up.
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Speaker 1: He had not thought of the stars before, and he
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Speaker 1: looked up, prepared in this fresh universe to see the
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Speaker 1: strangest constellations. But just as the life and size of
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Speaker 1: the planet they were on ran closely parallel to the Earth's,
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Speaker 1: so he beheld above him a starry vault of familiar forms.
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Speaker 1: And just as the utopian world failed to be altogether
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Speaker 1: parallel to its sister universe. So did these constellations seem
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Speaker 1: to be a little out in their drawing? Orion, he thought,
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Speaker 1: straddled wider and with a great, unfamiliar nebula at one corner.
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Speaker 1: And it was true. The wine was flattened out, and
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Speaker 1: the pointers pointed to a great void in the heavens.
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Speaker 1: Their polestar gone, the pointers the wane a Hugh. It
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Speaker 1: is symbolical, said Father Emerton. It was only too obviously
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Speaker 1: going to be symbolical. Mister Barnstable realized that a fresh
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Speaker 1: storm of eloquence was imminent from Father Emerton. At any cost.
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Speaker 1: He felt this nuisance must be abated. Part two. On Earth,
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Speaker 1: mister Barnstable had been a passive victim to bores of
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Speaker 1: all sorts, delicately and painfully considerate of the mental limitations
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Speaker 1: that made their insensitive pressure possible. But the free air
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Speaker 1: of utopia had already mounted to its head and released
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Speaker 1: initiatives that his excessively deferential recognition of others had hitherto restrained.
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Speaker 1: He had had enough of Father Emerton. It was necessary
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Speaker 1: to turn off Father Emerton, and he now proceeded to
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Speaker 1: do so with the simple directness that surprised himself, Father Emerton.
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Speaker 1: He said, I have a confession to make to you. Ah,
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Speaker 1: cried Father Emerton. Please anything you have been walking about
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Speaker 1: with me and shouting at my ears until I am
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Speaker 1: strongly impelled to murder you. If what I have said
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Speaker 1: has struck home, it hasn't struck home. It has been
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Speaker 1: a tiresome, silly, deafening jabbering in my ears. It wearies
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Speaker 1: me indescribably. It prevents my attending to the marvelous things
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Speaker 1: about us. I see exactly what you mean when you
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Speaker 1: say that there is no pole star here, and that
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Speaker 1: that is symbolical before you begin. I appreciate the symbol,
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Speaker 1: and a very obvious, weak and ultimately inaccurate symbol it is.
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Speaker 1: But you are one of those obstinate spirits who believes,
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Speaker 1: in spite of all evidence, that the eternal hills are
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Speaker 1: still eternal, and the fixed stars fixed forever. I want
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Speaker 1: you to understand that I am entirely out of sympathy
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Speaker 1: with all this stuff of yours. You seem to embody
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Speaker 1: all that is wrong and ugly and impossible in Catholic teaching.
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Speaker 1: I agree with these utopians that there is something wrong
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Speaker 1: with your mind about sex in all probability, a nasty
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Speaker 1: twist given to it in early life. And that what
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Speaker 1: you'd keep saying and hinting about sexual life here is
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Speaker 1: horrible and outrageous. And I am equally hostile to you
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Speaker 1: and exasperated and repelled by you. When you speak of
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Speaker 1: religion proper, you make religion disgusting, just as you would
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Speaker 1: make sex disgusting. You are a dirty priest. What you
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Speaker 1: call Christianity is a black and ugly superstition, a mere
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Speaker 1: excuse for malignity and persecution. It is an outrage upon Christ.
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Speaker 1: If you are a Christian, then most passionately, I declare
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Speaker 1: myself not a Christian. But there are other meanings for
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Speaker 1: Christianity than those you put upon it. And in another sense,
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Speaker 1: this utopia here is Christian, beyond all dreaming, utterly beyond
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Speaker 1: your understanding. We have come into this glorious world, which,
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Speaker 1: compared to our world, is like a bowl of crystal
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Speaker 1: compared to an old tin can. And you have the
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Speaker 1: insufferable impudence to say that we have been sent hither
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Speaker 1: as missionaries to teach them. God knows what God does know,
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Speaker 1: what said Father Emerton, a little taken aback, but coming
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Speaker 1: up very pluckily, oh, cried mister Barnstable, and was for
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Speaker 1: a moment speechless. Listen to me, my friend, said Father Emerton,
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Speaker 1: catching at his sleeve. Not for my life, cried mister Barnstable, recoiling.
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Speaker 1: See down that vista away there on the shore of
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Speaker 1: the lake. Those black figures are mister Burley, mister Mush
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Speaker 1: and lady Stella. They brought you here. They belong to
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Speaker 1: your party, and you belong to them. If they had
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Speaker 1: not wanted your company, you would not have been in
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Speaker 1: their car. Go to them. I will not have you
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Speaker 1: with me any longer. I refuse you and reject you.
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Speaker 1: That is your way, This, by this little is mine.
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Speaker 1: Don't follow me, or I will lay hands on you
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Speaker 1: and bring in these utopians to interfere between us. Forgive
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Speaker 1: my plainness, mister Emerton, but get away from me. Get
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Speaker 1: away from me. Mister Barnstable turned, and, seeing that Father
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Speaker 1: Emerton stood hesitating at the parting of the ways, took
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Speaker 1: to his heels and ran from him. He fled along
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Speaker 1: an alley behind tall hedges, turned sharply to the right,
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Speaker 1: and then to the left, passed over a high bridge
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Speaker 1: that crossed in front of a cascade that flung a
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Speaker 1: dash of spray in his face, blundered by two couples
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Speaker 1: of lovers who whispered softly in the darkling ran deviously
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Speaker 1: across flower studded turf, and at last threw himself down, breathless,
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Speaker 1: upon the steps that led up to a terrace that
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Speaker 1: looked towards the lake and mountains, and was adorned, it seemed,
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Speaker 1: in the dim light, with squat stone figures of seated,
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Speaker 1: vigilant animals and men. Ye, merciful stars, cried mister Barnstable.
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Speaker 1: At last, I am alone. He sat on these steps
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Speaker 1: for a long time, with his eyes upon the scene
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Speaker 1: about him, drinking in the satisfying realization that, for a
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Speaker 1: brief interval, at any rate, with no earthly presence to intervene,
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Speaker 1: he and Utopia were face to face. Part three. He
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Speaker 1: could not call this world the world of his dreams,
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Speaker 1: because he had never dared to dream of a world
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Speaker 1: so closely shaped to the desires and imaginations of his heart.
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Speaker 1: But surely this world it was, or a world the
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Speaker 1: very fellow of it that had lain deep beneath the
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Speaker 1: thoughts and dreams of thousands of sane, untroubled men and
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Speaker 1: women in the world of disorder from which he had come.
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Speaker 1: It was no world of empty peace, no such golden
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Speaker 1: decadence of indulgence as mister Catskill tried to imagine it.
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Speaker 1: It was a world mister Barnstable perceived intensely militant, conquering
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Speaker 1: and to conquer, prevailing over the obduracy of force and matter,
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Speaker 1: over the lifeless separations of empty space, and all the
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Speaker 1: antagonistic mysteries of being in utopia in the past, obscured
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Speaker 1: by the superficial exploits of statesmen like Burley and Catskill,
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Speaker 1: and the competition of traders and exploiters, every whit as
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Speaker 1: vile and vulgar as their earthly compeers. The work of
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Speaker 1: quiet and patient thinkers and teachers had gone on, and
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Speaker 1: the foundations which sustained this serene intensity of activity had
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Speaker 1: been laid. How few of these pioneers had ever felt
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Speaker 1: more than a transitory gleam of the righteous loveliness of
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Speaker 1: the world their lives made possible. And yet even in
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Speaker 1: the hate and turmoil and distresses of the days of confusion,
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Speaker 1: there must have been an earnest enough of the exquisite
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Speaker 1: and glorious possibilities of life over the foulest slums, the
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Speaker 1: sunset called to the imaginations of men, and from mountain ridges,
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Speaker 1: across great valleys, from cliffs and hillsides, and by the
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Speaker 1: uncertained and terrible splendors of the sea. Men must have
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Speaker 1: had glimpses of the conceivable and attainable magnificence of being,
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Speaker 1: every flower petal, every sunlit leaf, the vitality of young things,
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Speaker 1: the happy moments of the human mind transcending itself in art.
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Speaker 1: All these things must have been material for hope, incentive
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Speaker 1: to effort, and now at last this world. Mister Barnstable
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Speaker 1: lifted up his hands, like one who worships to the
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Speaker 1: friendly multitude of the stars above him. I have seen,
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Speaker 1: he whispered, I have seen little lights and soft glows
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Speaker 1: of illumination were coming out here and there over this
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Speaker 1: great park of flowerlike buildings and garden spaces that sloped
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Speaker 1: down towards the lake. A circling aeroplane itself a star
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Speaker 1: hummed softly overhead. A slender girl came past him down
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Speaker 1: the steps and paused at the sight of him. Are
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Speaker 1: you one of the earthlings? Came the question, and a
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Speaker 1: beam of soft light shone momentarily upon mister Barnstable from
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Speaker 1: the bracelet on her arm. I came to day, said
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Speaker 1: mister Barnstable, peering up at her. You are the man
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Speaker 1: who came alone in a little machine of tin with
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Speaker 1: rubber air bags round the wheels, very rusty underneath, and
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Speaker 1: painted yellow. I have been looking at it. It is
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Speaker 1: not a bad little car, said mister Barnstable. At first
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Speaker 1: we thought the priest came in it with you. He
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Speaker 1: is no friend of mine. There were priests like that
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Speaker 1: in Utopia many years ago. They caused much mischief among
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Speaker 1: the people. He was with the other lot, said mister Barnstable,
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Speaker 1: for their weekend party. I should think him rather a mistake.
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Speaker 1: She sat down a step or so above him. It
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Speaker 1: is wonderful that you should come here out of your
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Speaker 1: world to us. Do you find this world of ours
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Speaker 1: very wonderful? I suppose many things that seem quite commonplace
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Speaker 1: to me, me because I have been born among them, seem
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Speaker 1: wonderful to you. You are not very old. I am eleven.
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Speaker 1: I am learning the history of the ages of confusion,
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Speaker 1: And they say your world is still in an age
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Speaker 1: of confusion. It is just as though you came to
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Speaker 1: us out of the past, out of history. I was
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Speaker 1: in the conference and I was watching your face. You
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Speaker 1: love this present world of ours, at least you love
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Speaker 1: it much more than your other people do. I want
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Speaker 1: to live all the rest of my life in it.
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Speaker 1: I wonder if that is possible. Why should it not
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Speaker 1: be possible. It would be easier than sending me back.
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Speaker 1: I should not be very much in the way. I
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Speaker 1: should only be here for twenty or thirty years at
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Speaker 1: the most, and I would learn everything I could and
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Speaker 1: do everything I was told. But isn't there work that
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Speaker 1: you have to do in your own world? Mister Barnstable
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Speaker 1: made no answer to that. He did not seem to
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Speaker 1: hear it. It was the girl who presently broke the silence.
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Speaker 1: They say that when we Utopians are young, before our
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Speaker 1: minds in care characters are fully formed and matured, we
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Speaker 1: are very much like the men and women in the
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Speaker 1: Age of Confusion. We are more egotistical then they tell us.
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Speaker 1: Life about us is still so unknown. We are adventurous
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Speaker 1: and romantic. I suppose I am egotistical yet and adventurous.
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Speaker 1: And it does still seem to me that, in spite
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Speaker 1: of many terrible and dreadful things. There was much that
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Speaker 1: must have been wildly exciting and desirable in that past,
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Speaker 1: which is still so like your present. What can it
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Speaker 1: have been like to have been a general entering a
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Speaker 1: conquered city, or a prince being crowned, or to be
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Speaker 1: rich and be able to astonish people by acts of
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Speaker 1: power and benevolence, or to be a martyr led out
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Speaker 1: to die for some splendid misunderstood cause these things sound
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Speaker 1: better in stories and histories than in reality, said mister Barnstall,
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Speaker 1: after due consideration. Did you hear mister Rupert caatskill the
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Speaker 1: last of the earthlings to make a speech? He thought romantically,
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Speaker 1: but he did not look romantic. He has lived most romantically.
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Speaker 1: He has fought bravely in wars. He has been a
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Speaker 1: prisoner and escaped wonderfully from prison. His violent imaginations have
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Speaker 1: caused the deaths of thousands of people. And presently we
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Speaker 1: shall see another romantic adventurer in this Lord Barilanga there
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Speaker 1: bringing hither. He is enormously rich and tries to astonish
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Speaker 1: people with his wealth, just as you have dreamt of
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Speaker 1: astonishing people. Are they not astonished? Romance is not reality,
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Speaker 1: said mister Barnstable. He is one of a number of floundering,
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Speaker 1: corrupting rich men who are a weariness to themselves and
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Speaker 1: an intolerable nuisance to the rest of our world. They
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Speaker 1: want to do vulgar, showy things. This man, Barolanga, was
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Speaker 1: an assistant to a photographer and something of an actor.
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Speaker 1: When a certain invention called moving pictures came into our world.
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Speaker 1: He became a great prospector in the busyess of showing
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Speaker 1: these pictures, partly by accident, partly by the inscrupulous cheating
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Speaker 1: of various investors. Then he launched out into speculations in
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Speaker 1: shipping and in a trade we carry on in our
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Speaker 1: world in frozen meat brought from great distances. He made
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Speaker 1: food costly for many people and impossible for some, and
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Speaker 1: so he grew rich. For in our world men grow
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Speaker 1: weary by intercepting rather than by serving, And having become
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Speaker 1: ignobly rich, certain of our politicians, for whom he did
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Speaker 1: some timely services ennobled him by giving him the title
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Speaker 1: of Lord. Do you understand the things I am saying?
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Speaker 1: Was your age of confusion so like ours? You did
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Speaker 1: not know it was so ugly? Forgive me if I
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Speaker 1: disillusion you about the age of confusion and its romantic possibilities.
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Speaker 1: But I have just stepped out of the dust and
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Speaker 1: disorder and noise of its indiscipline, out of limitation, cruelties
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Speaker 1: and distresses, out of a wearyness in which hope dies.
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Speaker 1: Perhaps if my world attracts you, you may yet have
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Speaker 1: an opportunity of adventuring out of all this into its disorders.
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Speaker 1: That will be an adventure. Indeed, who knows what may
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Speaker 1: happen between our worlds. But you will not like it.
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Speaker 1: I'm afraid you cannot imagine how dirty our world is.
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Speaker 1: Dirt and disease, these are in the trailing skirts of
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Speaker 1: all romance. A silence fell between them. He followed his
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Speaker 1: own thoughts, and the girl sat and wondered over him.
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Speaker 1: At length, he spoke again, Shall I tell you what
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Speaker 1: I was thinking of when you spoke to me? Yes,
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Speaker 1: your world is the consummation of a million ancient dreams.
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Speaker 1: It is wonderful, It is wonder high as heaven. But
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Speaker 1: it is a great grief to me that two dear
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Speaker 1: friends of mine cannot be here with me to see
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Speaker 1: what I am seeing. It is queer how how strong
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Speaker 1: the thought of them is in my mind. One has
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Speaker 1: passed now beyond all the universes alas, but the other
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Speaker 1: is still in my world. You are a student, my dear.
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Speaker 1: Every one of your world, I suppose, is a student here.
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Speaker 1: But in our world, students are a class apart. We
22:19
Speaker 1: three were happy together because we were students and not
22:22
Speaker 1: yet caught into the mills of senseless toil. And we
22:25
Speaker 1: were none the less happy because we were miserably poor
22:28
Speaker 1: and often hungry. Together, we used to talk and dispute
22:32
Speaker 1: together in our students debating society, discussing the disorders of
22:36
Speaker 1: our world and how someday they might be bettered. Was
22:39
Speaker 1: there in your age of confusion that sort of eager, hopeful,
22:44
Speaker 1: poverty struck student life go on? Said the girl, with
22:48
Speaker 1: her eyes intent on his dim profile. In old novels,
22:52
Speaker 1: I have read of just that hungry, dreaming student world.
22:56
Speaker 1: We three agreed that the supreme need of our time
22:59
Speaker 1: was edgution. We agreed that was the highest service we
23:03
Speaker 1: could join. We all set about it in our various ways.
23:07
Speaker 1: I the least useful of the three My friends and
23:10
Speaker 1: I drifted a little apart. They edited a great monthly
23:14
Speaker 1: periodical that helped to keep the world of science. Together
23:17
Speaker 1: and my friend serving a careful and grudging firm of publishers,
23:22
Speaker 1: edited school books for them, conducted an educational paper, and
23:26
Speaker 1: also inspected schools for our university. He was too heedless
23:31
Speaker 1: of pay and profit ever to become even passably well off,
23:35
Speaker 1: though these publishers profited greatly by his work. His whole
23:39
Speaker 1: life was a continual service of toil for teaching. He
23:43
Speaker 1: did not take as much as a month's holiday in
23:45
Speaker 1: any year in his life. While he lived, I thought
23:49
Speaker 1: little of the work he was doing. But since he
23:51
Speaker 1: died I have heard from teachers whose schools he inspected,
23:55
Speaker 1: and from book writers whom he advised, of the incessant
23:58
Speaker 1: high quality of his life toil, and the patience and
24:01
Speaker 1: sympathy of his work on such lives as his. This
24:05
Speaker 1: utopia in which your sweet life is opening, is founded
24:09
Speaker 1: on such lives. Our world of Earth will yet build
24:12
Speaker 1: its utopia. But the life of this friend of mine
24:16
Speaker 1: ended abruptly in a way that tore my heart. He
24:19
Speaker 1: worked too hard and too long through a crisis in
24:23
Speaker 1: which it was inconvenient for him to take a holiday.
24:26
Speaker 1: His nervous system broke down with shocking suddenness, his mind
24:30
Speaker 1: gave way, he passed into a phase of acute melancholia
24:33
Speaker 1: and died. For it is perfectly true, old nature has
24:38
Speaker 1: neither righteousness nor pity. This happened a few weeks ago.
24:43
Speaker 1: That other old friend and I, with his wife, who
24:45
Speaker 1: had been his tireless helper, were chief among the mourners
24:49
Speaker 1: at his funeral. Tonight, the memory of that comes back
24:52
Speaker 1: to me with extraordinary vividness. I do not know how
24:56
Speaker 1: you dispose of you're dead here, but on earth the
24:59
Speaker 1: dead are mostly buried. In the earth. We are burnt,
25:02
Speaker 1: said the girl. Those who are liberal minded in our
25:05
Speaker 1: world burn also. Our friend was burnt. And we stood
25:10
Speaker 1: and took our part in a service according to the
25:12
Speaker 1: rites of our ancient religion, in which we no longer believed.
25:16
Speaker 1: And presently we saw his coffin, covered with wreaths and flowers,
25:21
Speaker 1: slide from before us, out of our sight, through the
25:23
Speaker 1: gates that led to the furnaces of the crematorium, and
25:26
Speaker 1: as it went, taking with it so much of my youth.
25:30
Speaker 1: I saw that my other dear old friend was sobbing,
25:33
Speaker 1: and I too was wrung to the pitch of tears
25:36
Speaker 1: to think that so valiant and devoted and industrious a
25:39
Speaker 1: life should end as it seemed so miserably and thanklessly.
25:43
Speaker 1: The priest had been reading a long, contentious discourse by
25:46
Speaker 1: a theological writer named Paul, full of bad arguments by
25:50
Speaker 1: analogy and weak assertions. I wish that instead of the
25:54
Speaker 1: ideas of this ingenious ancient we could have had some
25:57
Speaker 1: discourse upon the real nobility of our friend, on the
26:01
Speaker 1: pride and intensity of his work, and on his scorn
26:04
Speaker 1: for mercenary things. All his life he had worked with
26:08
Speaker 1: unlimited devotion for such a world as this, And yet
26:12
Speaker 1: I doubt if he had ever had any realization of
26:14
Speaker 1: the clearer, nobler life for man, that his life and
26:18
Speaker 1: the toil of such lives as his, were making sure
26:21
Speaker 1: and certain in the days to come. He lived by faith.
26:25
Speaker 1: He lived too much by faith. There was not enough
26:27
Speaker 1: sunlight in his life. If I could have him here now,
26:32
Speaker 1: and that other dear friend who grieved for him so bitterly,
26:36
Speaker 1: if I could have them both here, if I could
26:38
Speaker 1: give up my place here to them so that they
26:40
Speaker 1: could see as I see, the real greatness of their
26:43
Speaker 1: lives reflected in these great consequences of such lives as theirs,
26:48
Speaker 1: then then I could rejoice in utopia, indeed, but I
26:53
Speaker 1: feel now as if I had taken my old friend's
26:56
Speaker 1: savings and was out spending them on myself. Mister barnes
27:00
Speaker 1: Stable suddenly remembered the youth of his hearer. Forgive me,
27:04
Speaker 1: my dear child, for running on in this fashion, But
27:07
Speaker 1: your voice was kind. The girl's answer was to bend
27:11
Speaker 1: down and brush his extended hand with her soft lips.
27:15
Speaker 1: Then suddenly she sprang to her feet. Look at that light,
27:18
Speaker 1: she said, among the stars. Mister Barnstable stood up beside her.
27:24
Speaker 1: That is the aeroplane bringing Lord Bari Langa and his party.
27:28
Speaker 1: Lord Barilanga, who killed a man today? Is he a
27:31
Speaker 1: very big, strong man, ungovernable and wonderful. Mister Barnstable, struck
27:36
Speaker 1: by a sudden doubt, looked sharply at the sweet upturned
27:40
Speaker 1: face beside him. I have never seen him, but I
27:44
Speaker 1: believe he is a youngish, baldish, undersized man who suffers
27:47
Speaker 1: very gravely from a disordered liver and kidneys. This has
27:51
Speaker 1: prevented the dissipation of his energies upon youthful sports and pleasures,
27:55
Speaker 1: and enabled him to concentrate upon the acquisition of property.
27:59
Speaker 1: And so he was able to buy the noble title
28:02
Speaker 1: that touches your imagination. Come with me and look at him.
28:06
Speaker 1: The girl stood still and met his eyes. She was
28:09
Speaker 1: eleven years old, and she was as tall as he was.
28:13
Speaker 1: But there was no romance in the past, only in
28:16
Speaker 1: the hearts of the young, and it died. But is
28:20
Speaker 1: there no romance? Endless romance? And it all has to come,
28:25
Speaker 1: It comes for you. Part four. The bringing in of
28:32
Speaker 1: Lord Barolanga and his party was something of an anticlimax
28:35
Speaker 1: to mister Barnstable's wonderful day. He was tired, and quite
28:39
Speaker 1: unreasonably he resented the invasion of Utopia by these people.
28:44
Speaker 1: The two parties of Earthlings were brought together in a
28:47
Speaker 1: brightly lit hall near the lawn upon which the Barolanga
28:50
Speaker 1: aeroplane had come down. The newcomers came in in a
28:54
Speaker 1: group together, blinking, travel worn and weary looking, but it
28:59
Speaker 1: was evident they were greatly relieved to encounter other Earthlings
29:03
Speaker 1: in what was to them a still intensely puzzling experience,
29:07
Speaker 1: for they had had nothing to compare with the calm
29:10
Speaker 1: and lucid discussion of the conference place. Their lapse into
29:14
Speaker 1: this strange world was still an incomprehensible riddle for them.
29:19
Speaker 1: Lord Barolanga was the owner of the gnome like face
29:23
Speaker 1: that had looked out at mister Barnstable when the large
29:25
Speaker 1: gray car had passed him on the maiden hand road.
29:28
Speaker 1: His skull was very low and broad above his brows,
29:31
Speaker 1: so that he reminded mister Barnstable of the flat stopper
29:34
Speaker 1: of a glass bottle. He looked hot and tired. He
29:38
Speaker 1: was considerably disheveled, as if from a struggle, and one
29:42
Speaker 1: arm was in a sling. His little brown eyes were
29:44
Speaker 1: as alert and wary as those of a wicked urchin
29:47
Speaker 1: in the hands of a policeman. Sticking close to him
29:50
Speaker 1: like a familiar spirit was a small, almost jockey like chauffeur,
29:54
Speaker 1: whom he addressed as Ridley. Ridley's face also was marked
29:58
Speaker 1: by the stern, determined nation of a man in a
30:01
Speaker 1: difficult position, not in any manner to give himself away.
30:05
Speaker 1: His left cheek and ear had been cut in the
30:07
Speaker 1: automobile smash and were liberally adorned with sticking plaster. Miss
30:12
Speaker 1: greeta Gray, the lady of the party was a frankly
30:15
Speaker 1: blonde beauty in a white flannel tailor made suit. She
30:19
Speaker 1: was extraordinarily unruffled by the circumstances in which she found herself.
30:24
Speaker 1: It was as if she had no sense whatsoever of
30:26
Speaker 1: their strangeness. She carried herself with the habitual hauteur of
30:31
Speaker 1: a beautiful girl, almost professionally exposed to the risk of
30:34
Speaker 1: unworthy advances anywhere. The other two people of the party
30:39
Speaker 1: were a gray faced, gray clad American, also very wary eyed,
30:44
Speaker 1: who was mister Barnstable learnt from mister mush Hunker, the
30:48
Speaker 1: cinema King, And a thoroughly ruffled looking Frenchman, a dark,
30:52
Speaker 1: smartly dressed man with an imperfect command of English, who
30:56
Speaker 1: seemed rather to have fallen into Lord Barolonga's party than
30:59
Speaker 1: to have longed to it properly. Mister Barnstable's mind leaped
31:03
Speaker 1: to the conclusion, and nothing occurred afterwards to change his
31:06
Speaker 1: opinion that some interest in the cinematograph had brought this
31:11
Speaker 1: gentleman within range of Lord Barolonga's hospitality, and that he
31:14
Speaker 1: had been caught as a foreigner may so easily be
31:17
Speaker 1: caught into the embrace of a thoroughly uncongenial weekend expedition,
31:23
Speaker 1: as Lord Barolonga and mister Hunker came forward to greet
31:26
Speaker 1: mister Burley and mister Catskill. This frenchman addressed himself to
31:30
Speaker 1: mister Barnstable with the inquiry whether he spoke French, I
31:34
Speaker 1: cannot understand. He said, we were to have gone to Wiltshire, Wiltshire,
31:40
Speaker 1: and then one adorable thing has happened after another. What
31:43
Speaker 1: is it we have come to? And what sort of
31:45
Speaker 1: people are all? These people who speak most excellent French.
31:49
Speaker 1: Is it a joke of Lord Barolonga or a dream?
31:52
Speaker 1: Or what has happened to us? Mister Barnstable attempted some explanation,
31:58
Speaker 1: and alzarde mention, said the Frenchman another world. That is
32:02
Speaker 1: all very well, but I have my business to attend
32:05
Speaker 1: to in London. I have no need to be brought
32:08
Speaker 1: back in this way to France, some sort of France,
32:11
Speaker 1: some az of France, in some other world. It is
32:13
Speaker 1: too much of a joke altogether. Mister Barnstable attempted some
32:17
Speaker 1: further exposition. It was clear from his interlocutor's puzzled face
32:22
Speaker 1: that the phrases he used were too difficult. He turned
32:26
Speaker 1: helplessly to Lady Stella and found her ready to undertake
32:29
Speaker 1: the task. This lady, he said, will be able to
32:33
Speaker 1: make things plain to you. Lady Stella, this is Monsieur
32:37
Speaker 1: Emill DuPont, the Frenchman bowed. I am what you call
32:41
Speaker 1: a journalist and a publicist. I am interested in the
32:44
Speaker 1: cinematograph from the points of view of education and propaganda.
32:48
Speaker 1: That is why I am here with his Lordship Barolonga.
32:51
Speaker 1: French conversation was Lady Stella's chief accomplishment. She sailed into
32:56
Speaker 1: it now very readily. She took over the elucidation of
33:00
Speaker 1: Monsieur du Pont, and only interrupted it to tell Miss
33:03
Speaker 1: Greeta Gray how pleasant it was to have another woman
33:06
Speaker 1: with her in this strange world. Relieved of Monsieur DuPont,
33:10
Speaker 1: mister Barnstable stood back and surveyed the little group of
33:13
Speaker 1: earthlings in the center of the hall, and the circle
33:15
Speaker 1: of tall, watchful utopians about them, and rather aloof from them.
33:20
Speaker 1: Mister Burley was being distantly cordial to Lord Baro Lunga,
33:24
Speaker 1: and mister Hunker was saying what a great pleasure it
33:27
Speaker 1: was to him to meet Britain's foremost statesman. Mister Catskill
33:31
Speaker 1: stood in the most friendly manner beside Barolonga. They knew
33:35
Speaker 1: each other well, and Father Amerton exchanged comments with mister
33:39
Speaker 1: mush Ridley and Penk After some moments of austere regard
33:44
Speaker 1: had gone apart to discuss the technicalities of the day's
33:46
Speaker 1: experience in undertones. Nobody paid any attention to mister Barnstable.
33:52
Speaker 1: It was like a meeting at a railway station. It
33:55
Speaker 1: was like a reception. It was utterly incredible and altogether
33:59
Speaker 1: common place. He was weary, he was saturated and exhausted
34:04
Speaker 1: by wonder. Oh, I am going to my bed, he yawned, suddenly,
34:08
Speaker 1: I am going to my little bed. He made his
34:12
Speaker 1: way through the friendly eyed utopians out into the calm starlight.
34:16
Speaker 1: He nodded to the strange nebula at the corner of Orion,
34:19
Speaker 1: as a weary parent might nod to importunate offspring. He
34:24
Speaker 1: would consider it again in the morning. He staggered drowsily
34:28
Speaker 1: through the gardens to his own particular retreat. He disrobed
34:32
Speaker 1: and went to sleep, as immediately and profoundly as a
34:35
Speaker 1: tired child. End of Section seven.