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In the Days of the Comet Book Third Chapter First Section 5-6 · The H. G. Wells Library

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  Speaker 1: Book three, chapter one, sections five and six of In
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  Speaker 1: the Days of the Comet. 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. In
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  Speaker 1: the Days of the Comet by H. G. Wells, Book three,
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  Speaker 1: Chapter one, sections five and six. Suddenly I looked up.
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  Speaker 1: Nettie had come back and stood looking down at me.
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  Speaker 1: Since we talked, I have been thinking, she said, Edward
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  Speaker 1: has let me come to you alone, and I feel
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  Speaker 1: perhaps I can talk better to you alone. I said nothing,
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  Speaker 1: and that embarrasser. I don't think we ought to part,
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  Speaker 1: she said, No, I don't think we ought to part.
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  Speaker 1: She repeated one lives, she said in different ways. I
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  Speaker 1: wonder if you understand what I'm saying, Willie. It's hard
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  Speaker 1: to say what I feel, but I want it said.
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  Speaker 1: If we are at a part for ever, I want it,
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  Speaker 1: said very plainly. Always before, I have had the woman's
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  Speaker 1: instinct and the woman's training, which makes one hide. But
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  Speaker 1: Edward is not all of me. Think of what I
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  Speaker 1: am saying. Edward is not all of me. I wish
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  Speaker 1: I could tell you better how I see it. I
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  Speaker 1: am not all of myself. You, at any rate, are
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  Speaker 1: a part of me. And I cannot bear to leave you,
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  Speaker 1: and I cannot see why I should leave you. There's
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  Speaker 1: a sort of blood link between us Willi. We grew together,
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  Speaker 1: We are in one another's bones. I understand you now,
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  Speaker 1: Indeed I understand in some way. I have come to
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  Speaker 1: an understanding at a stride. Indeed, I understand you and
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  Speaker 1: your dream I want to help you, Edward. Edward has
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  Speaker 1: no dreams. It is dreadful to me well to think
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  Speaker 1: we two are to part. But we've settled that part.
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  Speaker 1: We must. But why I love you well? And why
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  Speaker 1: should I hide at Willie? I love you? Our eyes met,
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  Speaker 1: she flushed. She went on resolutely. You are stupid. The
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  Speaker 1: whole thing is stupid. I love you both, I said.
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  Speaker 1: You do not understand what you say. No, you mean
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  Speaker 1: that I must go? Yes, yes, go. For a moment
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  Speaker 1: we looked at one another, mute, as though deep down
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  Speaker 1: in the unfathomable darkness below the surface and present reality
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  Speaker 1: of things, dumb meanings strove to be. She made speak
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  Speaker 1: and desisted. But must I go? She said at last,
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  Speaker 1: with quivering lips, and the tears in her eyes were stars.
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  Speaker 1: Then she began, willie go, I interrupted her yes. Then
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  Speaker 1: again we were still. She stood there, a tearful figure
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  Speaker 1: of pity, longing for me, pitying me something of that
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  Speaker 1: wider love that will carry our descendants at last. Out
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  Speaker 1: of all the limits, the hard, clear obligations of our
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  Speaker 1: personal life, moved us like the first breath of a
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  Speaker 1: coming wind out of heaven that stirs and passes away.
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  Speaker 1: I had an impulse to take her hand and kiss it,
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  Speaker 1: And then a trembling came to me, and I knew
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  Speaker 1: that if I touched her, my strength would all pass
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  Speaker 1: from me. And so, standing at a distance one from
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  Speaker 1: the other, we parted, and Nettie went reluctant and looking
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  Speaker 1: back with the man she had chosen, to the lot
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  Speaker 1: she had chosen out of my life, like the sunlight
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  Speaker 1: out of my life. Then you know, I suppose I
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  Speaker 1: folded up this newspaper and put it in my pocket,
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  Speaker 1: But my memory of that meeting ends with the face
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  Speaker 1: of Nettie turning to go section six. I remember all
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  Speaker 1: that very distinctly to this day. I could almost vouch
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  Speaker 1: for the world words I have put into our several mouths.
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  Speaker 1: And then comes a blank. I have a dim memory
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  Speaker 1: of being back in the house near the Lynx, and
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  Speaker 1: the bustle of Melmont's departure, of finding Parker's energy distasteful,
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  Speaker 1: and of going away down the road with a strong
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  Speaker 1: desire to say good bye to Melmount alone. Perhaps I
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  Speaker 1: was already doubting my decision to part for ever from Nettie,
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  Speaker 1: for I think I had it in mind to tell
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  Speaker 1: him all that had been said and done. I don't
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  Speaker 1: think I had a word with him, or anything but
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  Speaker 1: a hurried hand clasped. I'm not sure it has gone
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  Speaker 1: out of my mind, but I have a very clear
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  Speaker 1: and certain memory of my phase of bleak desolation as
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  Speaker 1: I watched his car recede and climb and vanish over
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  Speaker 1: Mapleboro Hill, and that I got there my first full
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  Speaker 1: and definite intimation that after all this great change and
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  Speaker 1: my new wide aims in life were not to mean
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  Speaker 1: indiscriminate happiness for me. I had a sense of protest
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  Speaker 1: as against extreme unfairness as I saw him go. It
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  Speaker 1: is too soon, I said to myself to leave me alone.
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  Speaker 1: I felt I had sacrificed too much. That after I
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  Speaker 1: had said good bye to the hot immediate life of
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  Speaker 1: passion to Nettie, and desire to physical and personal rivalry,
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  Speaker 1: to all that was most intensely myself. It was wrong
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  Speaker 1: to leave me alone and sore hearted, to go on
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  Speaker 1: at once with these steely, cold duties of the wider life.
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  Speaker 1: I felt new born and naked and at a loss work.
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  Speaker 1: I said with an effort at a heroic and turned
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  Speaker 1: about with a sigh. And I was glad that the
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  Speaker 1: way I had to go would at least take me
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  Speaker 1: to my mother. But curiously enough, I remember myself as
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  Speaker 1: being fairly cheerful in the town of Birmingham that night,
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  Speaker 1: I recall an active and interested mood. I spent the
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  Speaker 1: night in Birmingham because the train service on was disarranged
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  Speaker 1: and I could not get on. I went to listen
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  Speaker 1: to a band that was playing its brassy old world
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  Speaker 1: music in the public park, and I fell into a
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  Speaker 1: conversation with a man who said he had been a
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  Speaker 1: reporter upon one of their minor local papers. He was
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  Speaker 1: full and keen upon all the plans of reconstruction that
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  Speaker 1: were now shaping over the lives of humanity. And I
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  Speaker 1: know that something of that noble dream came back to
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  Speaker 1: me with his words and phrases. We walked up to
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  Speaker 1: a place called Bournville by moonlight and talked of the
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  Speaker 1: new social groupings that must replace the old isolated homes,
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  Speaker 1: and how the people would be housed. This Bournville was
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  Speaker 1: Germane to that matter. It had been an attempt on
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  Speaker 1: the part of a private firm of manufacturers to improve
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  Speaker 1: the housing of their workers. To our ideas to day,
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  Speaker 1: it would seem the feeblest of benevolent efforts, But at
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  Speaker 1: the time it was extraordinary and famous, and people came
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  Speaker 1: long journeys to see its trim cottages with baths sunk
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  Speaker 1: under the kitchen floors, of all conceivable places, and other
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  Speaker 1: brilliant inventions. No one seemed to see the danger to
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  Speaker 1: liberty and that aggressive age that might arise through making
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  Speaker 1: work people tenants and debtors of their employer, though an
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  Speaker 1: act called the Truck Act had long ago intervened to
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  Speaker 1: prevent minor developments in the same direction. But I and
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  Speaker 1: my chance acquaintance seemed that not always to have been
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  Speaker 1: aware of that possibility, and we had no doubt in
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  Speaker 1: our minds of the public nature of the housing duty.
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  Speaker 1: Our interests lay rather in the possibility of common nurseries
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  Speaker 1: and kitchens and public rooms that should economize toil and
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  Speaker 1: give people space and freedom. It was very interesting, but
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  Speaker 1: still a little cheerless. And when I lay in bed
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  Speaker 1: that night, I thought of Nettie and the queer modifications
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  Speaker 1: of preference she had made, and among other things, and
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  Speaker 1: in a way I prayed. I prayed that night, let
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  Speaker 1: me confess it to an image I had set up
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  Speaker 1: in my heart, an image that still serves with me
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  Speaker 1: as a symbol for things inconceivable to a master artificer,
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  Speaker 1: the unseen captain of all who go about building of
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  Speaker 1: the world, the making of mankind. But before and after
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  Speaker 1: I prayed, I imagined I was talking and reasoning and
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  Speaker 1: meeting again with Nettie. She never came into the temple
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  Speaker 1: of that worshiping with me. End of Book three, Chapter one,
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  Speaker 1: Sections five and six.