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Men Like Gods Book 1 Chapter 3 - The Beautiful People · The H. G. Wells Library

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Speaker 1: Section three 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: information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. This
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Speaker 1: is a recording by Brian Powell, Portland organ Men Like Gods,
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Speaker 1: Chapter the third, The Beautiful People. The fire in the
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Speaker 1: little house did not seem to be making headway. The
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Speaker 1: smoke that came from it was much less now than
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Speaker 1: when mister Barnstable had first observed it. As they came close,
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Speaker 1: they found a quantity of twisted bits of bright metal
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Speaker 1: and fragments of broken glass among the shattered masonry. The
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Speaker 1: suggestion of exploded scientific apparatus was very strong. Then, almost simultaneously,
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Speaker 1: the entire party became aware of a body lying on
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Speaker 1: the grassy slope behind the ruins. It was the body
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Speaker 1: of a man in the prime of life, naked except
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Speaker 1: for a couple of bracelets and a necklace girdle, and
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Speaker 1: blood was oozing from his mouth and nostrils. With a
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Speaker 1: kind of awe, mister Barnstable knelt down beside this prostrate
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Speaker 1: figure and felt it still hard. He had never seen
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Speaker 1: so beautiful a face and body before dead. He whispered, look,
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Speaker 1: cried the shrill voice of the man with the eyeglass another.
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Speaker 1: He was pointing to something that was hidden from mister
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Speaker 1: Barnstable by a piece of wall. Mister Barnstable had to
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Speaker 1: get up and climb over a heap of rubble before
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Speaker 1: he could see this second find. It was a slender girl,
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Speaker 1: clothed as little as the man. She had evidently been
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Speaker 1: flung with enormous violence against the wall and killed instantaneously.
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Speaker 1: Her face was quite undistorted, although her skull had been
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Speaker 1: crushed in from behind. Her perfect mouth and green gray
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Speaker 1: eyes were a little open, and her expression was that
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Speaker 1: of one who was still thinking out some difficult but
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Speaker 1: interesting problem. She did not seem in the least bit dead,
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Speaker 1: but merely disregardful. One hand still grasped a copper implement
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Speaker 1: with a handle of glass, the other lay limp and prone.
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Speaker 1: For some seconds, nobody spoke. It was as if they
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Speaker 1: all feared to interrupt the current of her thoughts. Then
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Speaker 1: mister Barnsball heard the voice of the priestly gentleman speaking
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Speaker 1: very softly behind him. What a perfect form, he said.
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Speaker 1: I admit I was wrong, said mister Burley, with deliberation.
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Speaker 1: I have been wrong. These are no earthly people. Manifestly
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Speaker 1: and eergo, we are not on Earth. I cannot imagine
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Speaker 1: what has happened nor where we are. In the face
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Speaker 1: of sufficient evidence, I have never hesitated to retract an opinion.
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Speaker 1: This world we are in is not our world. It
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Speaker 1: is something, he paused, it is something very wonderful. Indeed,
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Speaker 1: and the Windsor party, said mister Catskill, without any apparent regret,
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Speaker 1: must have its lunch without us. But then said the
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Speaker 1: clerical gentleman, what world are we in? And how did
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Speaker 1: we get here? Ah? There, said mister Burley Blandly, you
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Speaker 1: go altogether beyond my poor powers of guessing. We are
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Speaker 1: here in some world that is singularly like our world
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Speaker 1: and singularly unlike it. It must be in some way
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Speaker 1: related to our world, or we could not be here.
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Speaker 1: But how it can be related is I confess a
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Speaker 1: hopeless mystery to me. Maybe we are in some other
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Speaker 1: dimension of space than those we WoT of. But my
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Speaker 1: poor head whirls at the thought of these dimensions. I
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Speaker 1: am I am amazed. Einstein injected the gentleman with the
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Speaker 1: eye glass compactly and with evident self satisfaction exactly, said
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Speaker 1: mister Burley. Einstein might make it clear to us, or
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Speaker 1: dear Old Haldane might undertake to explain it and fog
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Speaker 1: us up with that adipose hegelineism of his. But I
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Speaker 1: am neither Haldane nor Einstein. Here we are in some
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Speaker 1: world which is for all practical purposes, including the purpose
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Speaker 1: of our week end engagements nowhere, or if you prefer
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Speaker 1: the Greek of it, we are in utopia, and as
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Speaker 1: I do not see that there is any manifest way
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Speaker 1: out of it. Again, I suppose a thing we have
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Speaker 1: to do, as rational creatures is to make the best
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Speaker 1: of it and watch our opportunities. It is certainly a
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Speaker 1: very lovely world, the loveliest is even greater than the
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Speaker 1: wonder and there are human beings here with minds, I
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Speaker 1: judge from all this material lying about it is a
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Speaker 1: world in which experimental chemistry is pursued, pursued indeed to
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Speaker 1: the bitter end, under almost idyllic conditions. Chemistry and nakedness.
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Speaker 1: I feel bound to confess that whether we are to
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Speaker 1: regard these two people who have apparently just blown themselves
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Speaker 1: up here as Greek gods or as naked savages seems
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Speaker 1: to me to be altogether a question of individual taste.
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Speaker 1: I admit bias for the Greek god and goddess, except
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Speaker 1: it is a little difficult to think of two dead immortals,
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Speaker 1: squeaked the gentleman of the eyeglass, in the tone of
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Speaker 1: one who scores a point. Mister Burley was about to reply,
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Speaker 1: and to judge for his ruffled expression. His reply would
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Speaker 1: have been of a disciplinary nature, but instead he exclaimed
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Speaker 1: sharply and turned round to face two newcomers. The whole
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Speaker 1: party had become aware of them at the same moment.
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Speaker 1: Two stark apollos stood over the ruin and were regarding
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Speaker 1: our earthlings with an astonishment at least as great as
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Speaker 1: that they created once spoke, and mister Barnstable was astonished
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Speaker 1: beyond measure to find understandable words. Reverberating in his mind
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Speaker 1: read gods cried the utopian, What things are you? And
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Speaker 1: how did you get into this world? English? It would
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Speaker 1: have been far less astounding if they had spoken Greek,
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Speaker 1: but that they should speak any known language was a
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Speaker 1: matter of incredulous amazement. Mister cecil Burley was the least
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Speaker 1: disconcerted of the party. Now he said, we may hope
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Speaker 1: to learn something definite face to face with rational and
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Speaker 1: articulate creatures. He cleared his throat, grasped the lapels of
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Speaker 1: his long dustcoat with two long, nervous hands, and assume
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Speaker 1: the duties of spokesmen. We are quite unabled, gentlemen, to
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Speaker 1: account for our presence here, he said. We are as
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Speaker 1: puzzled as you are. We have discovered ourselves suddenly in
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Speaker 1: your world instead of our own. You come from another world, exactly,
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Speaker 1: a quite different world in which we have all our
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Speaker 1: natural and proper places. We were traveling in that world
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Speaker 1: of ours in ah certain vehicles, when suddenly we discovered
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Speaker 1: ourselves here. Intruders, I admit, but I can assure you
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Speaker 1: innocent and unpremeditated intruders. You do not know how it
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Speaker 1: is that Arden and Greenlake have failed in their experiment,
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Speaker 1: and how it is that they are dead. If Arden
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Speaker 1: and Greenlake are the names of these two beautiful young
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Speaker 1: people here, we know nothing about them except that we
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Speaker 1: found them lying as you see them, when we came
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Speaker 1: from the road hither to find out, or in fact,
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Speaker 1: to inquire. He cleared his throat and left his sentence
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Speaker 1: with a floating end the utopian, if we may, for
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Speaker 1: convenience call him that who had first spoken, looked now
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Speaker 1: at his companion and seemed to question him mutely. Then
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Speaker 1: he turned to the earthlings again he spoke again. Those
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Speaker 1: clear tones rang not so, it seemed to mister Barnstable
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Speaker 1: in his ears, but within his head. It will be
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Speaker 1: well if you and your friends do not trample this wreckage.
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Speaker 1: It will be well if you all return to the road.
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Speaker 1: Come with me, my brother here will put an end
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Speaker 1: to this burning, and do what needs to be done
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Speaker 1: to our brother and sister. And afterwards this place will
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Speaker 1: be examined by those who understand the work that was
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Speaker 1: going on here. We must throw ourselves entirely upon your hospitality,
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Speaker 1: said mister Burley. We are entirely at your disposal. This encounter,
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Speaker 1: let me repeat, was not of our seeking, though we
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Speaker 1: should certainly have sought it if we had known of
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Speaker 1: its possibility, said mister Catskill, addressing the world at large,
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Speaker 1: and glancing at mister Barnstable, as if for confirmation. We
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Speaker 1: find this world of yours most attractive. At the first encounter,
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Speaker 1: the gentleman with the eyeglass endorsed a most attractive world
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Speaker 1: As they returned through the thick growing flowers to the
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Speaker 1: road in the wake of the Utopian and mister Burley,
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Speaker 1: mister Barnstable found Lady Stella rustling up beside him. Her
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Speaker 1: words in this setting of pure wonder filled him with
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Speaker 1: amazement at their serene and invincible ordinariness. Haven't we met
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Speaker 1: before somewhere at lunch or something? Mister mister was all
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Speaker 1: this no more than a show? He stared at her
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Speaker 1: blankly for a moment before supplying her with Barnstable. Mister Barnstable,
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Speaker 1: his mind came into line with hers. I've never had
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Speaker 1: the pleasure, Lady Stella, though of course I know you.
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Speaker 1: I know you very well from your photographs in the
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Speaker 1: weekly Illustrated papers. Did you hear what it was that
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Speaker 1: mister Cecil was saying just now about this being utopia?
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Speaker 1: He said, we might call it utopia, so like mister Cecil,
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Speaker 1: But is it utopia? Really utopia? I have always longed
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Speaker 1: so to be in utopia? The lady went on, without
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Speaker 1: waiting for mister Barnstable's reply to her question. What splendid
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Speaker 1: young men these two Utopians appear to be? They must,
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Speaker 1: I am sure, belong to its aristocracy in spite of
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Speaker 1: their informal costume, or even because of it. Mister Barnstable
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Speaker 1: had a happy thought, I have also recognized mister Burley
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Speaker 1: and mister Rupert catskill, Lady Stella. But I should be
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Speaker 1: so glad if you would tell me who the young
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Speaker 1: gentleman with the eyeglasses and the clerical gentlemen. They are
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Speaker 1: close behind us. Lady Stella imparted her information in a
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Speaker 1: charmingly confidential undertone. The eyeglass. She murmured, is I am
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Speaker 1: going to spell it f R E D D Y
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Speaker 1: m U s H taste, good taste. He is awfully
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Speaker 1: clever at finding out young poets and all that sort
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Speaker 1: of literary thing. And he's Rupert's secretary. If there is
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Speaker 1: a literary academy, they say he's certain to be in it.
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Speaker 1: He's dreadfully critical and sarcastic. We were going to Tableau
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Speaker 1: for a perfectly intellectual weekend, quite like the old times.
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Speaker 1: So soon as the windsor people had gone again. That is,
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Speaker 1: mister Goss was becoming an Max Berbaum and everyone like that.
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Speaker 1: But nowadays something always happens, always the unexpected, almost excessively.
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Speaker 1: The clerical caller She glanced back to judge whether she
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Speaker 1: was within earshot of the gentleman under discussion. Is father Emerton,
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Speaker 1: who is so dreadfully outspoken about the sins of society
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Speaker 1: and all that sort of thing. It's odd, but out
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Speaker 1: of the pulpit, he's inclined to be shy and quiet
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Speaker 1: and a little awkward with the forks and spoons. Paradoxical,
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Speaker 1: isn't it? Of course, cried mister Barnstable. I remember him now.
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Speaker 1: I knew his face, but I couldn't place it. Thank
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Speaker 1: you so much, Lady Stella. There was something very reassuring
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Speaker 1: that mister Barnstable in the company of these famous and
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Speaker 1: conspicuous people, and particularly in the company of Lady Stella,
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Speaker 1: she was indeed heartening. She brought so much of the
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Speaker 1: dear old world with her, and she was so manifestly
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Speaker 1: prepared to subjugate this new world to its standards at
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Speaker 1: the earliest possible opportunity. She fended off much of the
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Speaker 1: wonder and beauty that had threatened to submerge mister Barnstable altogether.
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Speaker 1: Meeting her and her company was, in itself, for a
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Speaker 1: man in his position, a minor but considerable adventure that
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Speaker 1: helped to bridge the gulf of astonishment between the humdrum
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Speaker 1: of his normal experiences and this all too bracing utopian air.
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Speaker 1: It solidified it, if one may use the word in
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Speaker 1: such a connection. It degraded the luminous splendor about him
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Speaker 1: towards complete credibility that it should also be seen and
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Speaker 1: commented on by her, and by mister Burley, and viewed
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Speaker 1: through the appraising monocle of mister Freddie Mush. It brought
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Speaker 1: it within range of the things that get into the newspapers.
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Speaker 1: Mister Barnstable alone in Utopia, might have been so completely
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Speaker 1: overawed as to have been mentally overthrown. This easy mannered,
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Speaker 1: brown skinned divinity, who was now exchanging in questions with
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Speaker 1: mister Burley, was made mentally accessible by the great Man's intervention.
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Speaker 1: Yet it was with something very like a catching of
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Speaker 1: the breath that mister Barnstable's attention reverted from the limousine
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Speaker 1: people to this noble seeming world into which he and
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Speaker 1: they had fallen. What sort of beings really were these
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Speaker 1: men and women of a world where ill bred weeds,
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Speaker 1: it seemed, had ceased to thrust and fight amidst the flowers,
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Speaker 1: and where leopards, void of feline malice, looked out with
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Speaker 1: friendly eyes upon the passer by. It was astounding that
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Speaker 1: the first two inhabitants they had found in this world
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Speaker 1: of subjugated nature should be lying dead victims. It would
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Speaker 1: seem of some hazardous experiment. It was still more astonishing
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Speaker 1: that this other pair, who called themselves the brothers of
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Speaker 1: the dead man and woman, should betray so little grief
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Speaker 1: or dismay at the tragedy. There had been no emotional
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Speaker 1: scene at all. Mister Barnsble realized, no consternation or weeping.
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Speaker 1: They were evidently much more puzzled and interested than either
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Speaker 1: horrified or distressed. The utopian, who had remained in the ruin,
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Speaker 1: had carried out the body of the girl to lay
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Speaker 1: it beside her companions, and he had, now mister Barnsable
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Speaker 1: Saul returned to a close scrutiny of the wreckage of
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Speaker 1: the experiment. But now more of these people were coming
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Speaker 1: upon the scene. They had aeroplanes in this world, for
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Speaker 1: two small ones, noiseless and swift in their flight, as swallows,
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Speaker 1: had landed in the fields near by. A man had
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Speaker 1: come up along the road on a machine like a
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Speaker 1: small two wheeled two seater with its wheels and series
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Speaker 1: bicycle fashion lighter and neaterer. It was than any earthly automobile,
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Speaker 1: and mysteriously able to stand up on its two wheels
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Speaker 1: while standing still. A burst of laughter from down the
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Speaker 1: road called mister Barnstable's attention to a group of these
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Speaker 1: utopians who had apparently found something exquisitely ridiculous and the
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Speaker 1: engine of the limousine. Most of these people were as
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Speaker 1: scantily clothed and as beautifully built as the two dead experimentalists,
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Speaker 1: but one or two were wearing big hats of straw,
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Speaker 1: and one, who seemed to be an older woman of
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Speaker 1: thirty or more, wore a robe of white bordered by
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Speaker 1: an intense red line. She was speaking now to mister Burley,
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Speaker 1: although she was a score of yards away. Her speech
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Speaker 1: presented itself into mister Barnsbill's mind with great distinctness. We
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Speaker 1: do not even know as yet what connection your coming
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Speaker 1: into this world may have with the explosion that has
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Speaker 1: just happened here, or whether indeed has any connection. We
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Speaker 1: want to inquire into both these things. It will be reasonable,
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Speaker 1: we think, to take you in all the possessions you
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Speaker 1: have brought with you to a convenient place for a
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Speaker 1: conference not very far from here. We are arranging for
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Speaker 1: machines to take you thither. There perhaps you will eat.
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Speaker 1: I do not know when you are accustomed to eat refreshment,
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Speaker 1: said mister Burley, rather catching at the idea. Some refreshment
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Speaker 1: would certain be acceptable before very long. In fact, had
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Speaker 1: we not fallen so sharply out of our own world
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Speaker 1: into yours, by this time, we should have been lunching,
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Speaker 1: lunging in the best of company. Wonder and lunch, thought
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Speaker 1: mister Barnstable. Man is a creature who must eat by necessity,
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Speaker 1: whether he wonder or no. Mister Barnstall perceived, indeed that
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Speaker 1: he was already hungry, and that the air he was
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Speaker 1: breathing was a keen and appetizing air. The Utopian seemed
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Speaker 1: struck by a novel idea. Do you eat several times
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Speaker 1: a day? What sort of things do you eat? Oh?
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Speaker 1: Surely they are not vegetarians, cried mister mush sharply in
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Speaker 1: our protesting parenthesis, dropping his eye glass from its socket.
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Speaker 1: They were all hungry, it showed upon their faces. We
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Speaker 1: are all accustomed to eat several times a day, said
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Speaker 1: mister Burley, perhaps it would be well if I were
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Speaker 1: to give you a brief resume of our dietary. There
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Speaker 1: may be differences. We begin, as a rule, with a
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Speaker 1: simple cup of tea, in the thinnest slice of bread
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Speaker 1: and butter brought to the bedside. Then comes breakfast. He
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Speaker 1: proceeded to a masterly summary of his gastronomic day, giving
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Speaker 1: clearly and attractively the particulars of an English breakfast. Eggs
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Speaker 1: to be boiled four and a half minutes, neither more
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Speaker 1: nor less, lunched with any light wine tea, rather a
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Speaker 1: social rally than a serious meal dinner, in some detail
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Speaker 1: the occasional resort to supper. It was one of those
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Speaker 1: clear statements which would have rejoiced the House of Commons, light,
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Speaker 1: even gay, and yet with a trace of earnestness. The
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Speaker 1: Utopian woman regarded him with deepening interest as he proceeded.
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Speaker 1: Do you all eat in this fashion? She asked, mister
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Speaker 1: Burley ran his eye over his party. I cannot answer
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Speaker 1: for mister mister Barnstable. Yes, I eat in much the
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Speaker 1: same fashion. For some reason, the Utopian woman smiled at him.
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Speaker 1: She had very pretty brown eyes, and though he liked
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Speaker 1: her to smile. He wished that she had not smiled
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Speaker 1: in the way she did. And you sleep, she asked,
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Speaker 1: from six to ten hours, according to circumstances, said mister Burley,
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Speaker 1: and you make love. The question perplexed, and to a
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Speaker 1: certain extent shocked our earthlings. What exactly did she mean?
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Speaker 1: For some moments no one framed a reply. Mister Barnstable's
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Speaker 1: mind was filled with a hurrying rush of strange possibilities.
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Speaker 1: Then mister Burley, with his fine intelligence and the quick
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Speaker 1: evasiveness of a modern leader of men, stepped into the breach.
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Speaker 1: Not habitually, I can assure you, he said, not habitually.
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Speaker 1: The woman with a red bordered robe seemed to think
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Speaker 1: this over for a swift moment. Then she smiled faintly.
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Speaker 1: We must take you somewhere where we can talk of
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Speaker 1: all these things, she said. Manifestly, you come from some
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Speaker 1: strange world. Our men of knowledge must get together with
17:50
Speaker 1: you in exchange ideas. At half past ten that morning,
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Speaker 1: mister Barnstable had been motoring along the main road through Slough,
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Speaker 1: and now at half past one he was soaring through
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Speaker 1: wonderland with his own world half forgotten. Marvelous, he repeated, marvelous.
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Speaker 1: I knew that I should have a good holiday. But
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Speaker 1: this this he was extraordinarily happy, with the bright, unclouded
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Speaker 1: happiness of a perfect dream. Never before had he enjoyed
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Speaker 1: the delights of an explorer in new Lands. Never before
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Speaker 1: had he hoped to experience these delights. Only a few
18:23
Speaker 1: weeks before he had written an article for the Liberal
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Speaker 1: lamenting the inn of the age of exploration, an article
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Speaker 1: so thoroughly and aimlessly depressing that it had pleased mister
18:32
Speaker 1: Peve extremely. He recalled that exploit now with but the
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Speaker 1: faintest twinge of remorse. The Earthling party had been distributed
18:40
Speaker 1: among four small airplanes, and as mister Barnstabll and his companion,
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Speaker 1: father Amerton, rose in the air, he looked back to
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Speaker 1: see the automobiles and luggage being lifted with astonishing ease
18:50
Speaker 1: into two lightly built lorries. Each lory put out a
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Speaker 1: pair of glittering arms and lifted up its automobile as
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Speaker 1: a nurse might lift up a baby. By contemporary earthly
18:59
Speaker 1: stands of safety, mister Barnstable's aviator flew very low. There
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Speaker 1: were times when he passed between trees rather than over them,
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Speaker 1: and this even if at first it was a little alarming,
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Speaker 1: permitted a fairly close inspection of the landscape. For the
19:13
Speaker 1: earlier part of the journey. It was gardened pasture with
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Speaker 1: grazing creamy cattle and patches of brilliantly colored vegetation of
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Speaker 1: a nature unknown to mister Barnstable. Amidst this cultivation, narrow tracks,
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Speaker 1: which may have been foot or cycle tracks, threaded their way.
19:27
Speaker 1: Here and there ran a road bordered with flowers and
19:30
Speaker 1: shaded by fruit trees. There were few houses, and no
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Speaker 1: towns or villages at all. The houses varied very greatly
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Speaker 1: in size, from little isolated buildings which mister Barnstable thought
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Speaker 1: might be elegant summer houses or little temples, to clusters
19:44
Speaker 1: of roofs and turrets which reminded him of country chateau,
19:47
Speaker 1: or suggested extensive farming or dairying establishments. Here and there
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Speaker 1: people were working in the fields, or going to and
19:54
Speaker 1: fro on foot or on machines. But the effect of
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Speaker 1: the whole was of an extremely underpopulated land. It it
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Speaker 1: became evident that they were going to cross the range
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Speaker 1: of snowy mountains that had so suddenly blotted the distant
20:05
Speaker 1: view of windsor castle from the landscape. As they approached
20:08
Speaker 1: these mountains, broad stretches of gold corn land replaced the
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Speaker 1: green of the passers, and then the cultivation became more diversified.
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Speaker 1: He noted unmistakable vineyards on sunny slopes, and the number
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Speaker 1: of workers visible, and the habitations multiplied. The little squadron
20:24
Speaker 1: of airplanes flew up a broad valley towards a pass,
20:26
Speaker 1: so that mister Barnstable was able to scrutinize the mountain scenery.
20:30
Speaker 1: Came chestnut woods and at last pines. There were Cyclopean
20:34
Speaker 1: turbines athwart the mountain, turrets and long low, many windowed
20:38
Speaker 1: buildings that might serve some industrial purpose. A skillfully graded
20:42
Speaker 1: road with exceedingly bold light, and beautiful viaducts mounted towards
20:46
Speaker 1: the pass. There were more people, he thought, in the
20:49
Speaker 1: high land country than in the levels below, though still
20:51
Speaker 1: far fewer than he would have seen upon any comparable
20:54
Speaker 1: countryside on Earth. Ten minutes of craggy desolation, with the
20:57
Speaker 1: snow field of a great glacier on one side, intervened
21:00
Speaker 1: before he descended into the Upland valley on the conference
21:04
Speaker 1: place where presently he alighted. This was a sort of
21:07
Speaker 1: lap in the mountain, terraced by masonry so boldly designed
21:11
Speaker 1: that it seemed a part of the geological substance of
21:13
Speaker 1: the mountain itself. It faced towards a wide artificial lake
21:17
Speaker 1: retained by a stupendous dam from the lower reaches of
21:20
Speaker 1: the valley. At intervals along this dam there were great
21:24
Speaker 1: stone pillars, dimly suggestive of seated figures. He glimpsed a
21:28
Speaker 1: wide plain beyond, which reminded him of the valley of
21:30
Speaker 1: the po and then as he ascended, the straight line
21:34
Speaker 1: of the dam came up to hide this further vision.
21:37
Speaker 1: Upon these terraces, and particularly upon the lower ones, were
21:40
Speaker 1: groups and clusters of flower like buildings, and he distinguished
21:44
Speaker 1: paths and steps and pools of water, as if the
21:46
Speaker 1: whole place were a garden. The airplanes made an easy
21:49
Speaker 1: landing on a turfy expanse Close at hand was a
21:52
Speaker 1: graceful chalet that ran out from the shores of the
21:54
Speaker 1: lake over the water, and afforded mooring to a flotilla
21:57
Speaker 1: of gaily colored boats. It was Father Emerton who had
22:01
Speaker 1: drawn mister Barnsable's attention to the absence of villages. He
22:05
Speaker 1: now remarked that there was no church in sight, and
22:08
Speaker 1: that nowhere had he seen any spires or belfries. But
22:11
Speaker 1: mister Barnstable thought that some of the smaller buildings might
22:13
Speaker 1: be temples or shrines. Religion may take different forms here,
22:17
Speaker 1: he said, And how few babies, oer little children are visible?
22:22
Speaker 1: Father Emerton remarked, no, have I seen a mother with
22:25
Speaker 1: her child. On the other side of the mountains, there
22:28
Speaker 1: was a place like the playing field of a big school.
22:31
Speaker 1: There were children there, and one or two other people
22:34
Speaker 1: dressed in white. I saw that, but I was thinking
22:37
Speaker 1: of babes. Compare this with what one would see in Italy.
22:41
Speaker 1: The most beautiful and desirable young women, added the reverend gentleman,
22:46
Speaker 1: most desirable and not a sign of maternity. Their aviator,
22:50
Speaker 1: a sun tanned blond with very blue eyes, helped them
22:52
Speaker 1: out of his machine, and they stood watching the descent
22:55
Speaker 1: of the other members of their party. Mister Barnstable was
22:58
Speaker 1: astonished to note how rapidly he was becoming familiarized with
23:01
Speaker 1: the color and harmony of this new world. The strangest
23:04
Speaker 1: things in the whole spectacle now were the figures and
23:06
Speaker 1: clothing of his associates, mister Rupert Catskill in his celebrated
23:10
Speaker 1: gray top hat, mister Mush with his preposterous eyeglass, the
23:14
Speaker 1: peculiar long slenderness of mister Burley, and the square leather
23:17
Speaker 1: clad lines of mister Burley's chauffeur struck him as being
23:21
Speaker 1: far more incredible than the graceful, utopian forms about him.
23:26
Speaker 1: The aviator's interests and amusement enhanced mister Barnstable's perception of
23:29
Speaker 1: his companion's oddity, and then came a wave of profound doubt.
23:34
Speaker 1: I suppose this is really real, he said to Father Emerton,
23:38
Speaker 1: really real? What else can it be? I suppose we
23:42
Speaker 1: are not dreaming all this are your dreams in mind,
23:45
Speaker 1: dreams likely to coincide. Yes, But there are quite impossible things,
23:50
Speaker 1: absolutely impossible things, as for instance, well, how is it
23:56
Speaker 1: that these people are speaking to us in English? Modern English?
24:01
Speaker 1: I never thought of that. It is rather incredible. They
24:05
Speaker 1: don't talk in English to one another. Mister Barnstable stared
24:09
Speaker 1: in round eyed amazement at Father Amerton, struck by the
24:13
Speaker 1: first time by a still more incredible fact. They don't
24:16
Speaker 1: talk to anything to one another, he said, and we
24:19
Speaker 1: haven't noticed it until this moment end of chapter three.
24:25
Speaker 1: This was a recording by Brian Powell, Portland, Oregon, September twenty, nineteen,