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In the Days of the Comet Book Third Chapter First Section 1 · The H. G. Wells Library

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  Speaker 1: Book three, Chapter one, Section one of In the Days
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  Speaker 1: of the Comet. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox
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  Speaker 1: recordings are in the public domain. For more information or
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  Speaker 1: to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org. In the Days
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  Speaker 1: of the Comet by H. G. Wells, Book three, Chapter one,
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  Speaker 1: Section one, Love After the Change. So far I have
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  Speaker 1: said nothing of Nettie. I have departed widely from my
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  Speaker 1: individual story. I have tried to give you the effect
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  Speaker 1: of the change in relation to the general framework of
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  Speaker 1: human life, its effect of swift, magnificent dawn, of an
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  Speaker 1: overpowering letting in, an inundating of light, and the spirit
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  Speaker 1: of living. In my memory, all my life, before all
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  Speaker 1: the change has the quality of a dark passage, with
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  Speaker 1: the dimmest side gleams of beauty that come and go.
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  Speaker 1: The rest is dull, pain and darkness. Then suddenly the walls,
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  Speaker 1: the bitter confines, are smitten and vanish, and I walk blinded, perplexed,
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  Speaker 1: and yet rejoicing in this sweet, beautiful world, in its fair,
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  Speaker 1: incessant variety, its satisfaction, its opportunities, exultant in this glorious
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  Speaker 1: gift of life. Had I the power of music I
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  Speaker 1: would make a world wide motif swell and amplify, gather
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  Speaker 1: to itself this theme and that, and rise at last
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  Speaker 1: to sheer ecstasy of triumph and rejoicing. It should be
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  Speaker 1: all sound, all pride, all the hope of outsetting in
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  Speaker 1: the morning brightness, all the glee of unexpected happenings, all
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  Speaker 1: the gladness of painful effort suddenly come to its reward.
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  Speaker 1: It should be like blossoms new opened, and the happy
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  Speaker 1: play of children, like tearful happy mothers holding their first born,
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  Speaker 1: Like cities building to the sound of music, and great
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  Speaker 1: ships all hung with flags and wine bespattered, gliding down
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  Speaker 1: through cheering multitudes to their first meeting with the sea.
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  Speaker 1: Through it all should march hope, confident, hope, radiant and invincible,
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  Speaker 1: until at last it would be the triumph march of hope,
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  Speaker 1: the conqueror, coming with trumpetings and banners through the wide
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  Speaker 1: flung gates of the world. And then out of that
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  Speaker 1: luminous haze of gladness comes Nettie transfigured. So she came
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  Speaker 1: again to me, amazing a thing incredibly forgotten. She comes back,
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  Speaker 1: and there all is in her company. She comes back
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  Speaker 1: into my memories now, just as she came back then,
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  Speaker 1: rather quaintly at first, at first, not seen very clearly,
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  Speaker 1: a little distorted by intervening things, scene with a doubt,
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  Speaker 1: as I saw her through the slightly discolored panes of
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  Speaker 1: crinkled glass in the window of the Minton Post Office
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  Speaker 1: and grocer's shop. It was on the second day after
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  Speaker 1: the change, and I had been sending telegrams for Melmount,
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  Speaker 1: who was making arrangements for his departure for Downing Street.
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  Speaker 1: I saw the two of them at first as small,
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  Speaker 1: flowed figures. The glass made them seem curved, and it enhanced,
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  Speaker 1: then alter their gestures and paces. I felt it became
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  Speaker 1: me to say peace to them, and I went out
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  Speaker 1: to the jangling of the door bell. At the sight
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  Speaker 1: of me, they stopped short, and Verrel cried with a
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  Speaker 1: note of one who has sought here he is, and
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  Speaker 1: Nettie cried Willie. I went toward them, and all the
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  Speaker 1: prospectives my reconstruct the universe altered as I did so.
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  Speaker 1: I seemed to see these two for the first time,
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  Speaker 1: how fine they were, how graceful and human. It was
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  Speaker 1: as though I had never really looked at them before,
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  Speaker 1: and indeed, always before I had beheld them through a
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  Speaker 1: mist of selfish passion. They had shared the universal darkness
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  Speaker 1: and dwarfing of the former time. They shared the universal
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  Speaker 1: exaltation of the new now suddenly Nettie, and the love
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  Speaker 1: of Nettie, a great passion for Nettie lived again in me.
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  Speaker 1: This change, which had enlarged men's hearts, had made no
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  Speaker 1: end to love. Indeed, it had enormously enlarged and glorified love.
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  Speaker 1: She stepped into the center of that dream of world
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  Speaker 1: reconstruction that filled my mind, and took possession of it all.
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  Speaker 1: A little wisp of hair had blown across her cheek.
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  Speaker 1: Her lips fell apart in that meet smile of hers.
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  Speaker 1: Her eyes were full of wonder, of a welcoming scrutiny,
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  Speaker 1: of an infinitely courageous friendliness. I took her outstretched hands,
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  Speaker 1: and wonder overwhelmed me. I wanted to kill you, I said,
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  Speaker 1: simply trying to grasp that idea. It seemed now like
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  Speaker 1: stabbing the stars or murdering the sunlight. Afterward, we looked
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  Speaker 1: for you, said Verol, and we could not find you.
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  Speaker 1: We heard another shot. I turned my eyes to him
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  Speaker 1: and Nettie's hand fell from me. It was then I
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  Speaker 1: thought of how they had fallen together, and what must
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  Speaker 1: have been to have awakened in that dawn with Nettie
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  Speaker 1: by one side. I had a vision of them as
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  Speaker 1: I had glimpsed them last amidst the thickening vapors, close together,
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  Speaker 1: hand in hand, the green hawks of the change spread
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  Speaker 1: their darkling wings above their last stumbling paces. So they
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  Speaker 1: fell and awoke lover together in a morning of paradise.
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  Speaker 1: Who can tell how bright the sunshine was to them,
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  Speaker 1: how fair the flowers, how sweet the singing of the birds.
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  Speaker 1: This was the thought of my heart. But my lips
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  Speaker 1: were saying when I awoke, I threw my pistol away.
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  Speaker 1: Sheer blankness kept my thoughts silent for a little while.
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  Speaker 1: I said empty things. I'm very glad I did not
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  Speaker 1: kill you, that you are here so fair and well.
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  Speaker 1: I am going away back to Clayton on the day
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  Speaker 1: after tomorrow, I said, breaking away to explanations. I've been
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  Speaker 1: writing shorthand here for Melmount, but that is almost over now.
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  Speaker 1: Neither of them said a word, And though all facts
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  Speaker 1: had suddenly ceased to matter anything, I went on informatively,
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  Speaker 1: he's to be taken to Downing Street, where there is
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  Speaker 1: a proper staff, so that there will be no need
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  Speaker 1: of me. Of course, you are a little perplexed my
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  Speaker 1: being with Melmount. You see, I met him by accident,
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  Speaker 1: directly I recovered. I found him with a broken ankle
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  Speaker 1: in that lane. I am to go now to the
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  Speaker 1: four Towns to help prepare a report, so that I
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  Speaker 1: am glad to see you both again. I found a
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  Speaker 1: catch in my voice to say good bye to you
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  Speaker 1: and wish you well. This was after the quality of
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  Speaker 1: what had come into my mind when first I saw
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  Speaker 1: them through the grocer's window. But it was not what
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  Speaker 1: I felt and thought. As I said, I went on
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  Speaker 1: saying it because otherwise there would have been a gap.
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  Speaker 1: It had come to me that it was going to
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  Speaker 1: be hard to part from Nettie. My words sounded with
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  Speaker 1: an effect of unreality. I stopped, and we stood for
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  Speaker 1: a moment in silence, looking at one another. It was I,
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  Speaker 1: I think, who was discovering most. I was realizing for
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  Speaker 1: the first time how little of the change had altered
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  Speaker 1: in my essential nature. I had forgotten this business of
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  Speaker 1: love for a time in a world of wonder that
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  Speaker 1: was all. Nothing was lost from my nature, nothing had gone,
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  Speaker 1: only the power of thought and restraint had been wonderfully increased,
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  Speaker 1: and new interests had been forced upon me. The green
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  Speaker 1: vapors had passed. Our minds were swept and garnished, but
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  Speaker 1: we were ourselves still, though living in a new and
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  Speaker 1: finer air. My affinities were unchanged. Neddie's personal charm for
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  Speaker 1: me was only quickened by the enhancement of my perceptions
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  Speaker 1: in her presence. Meeting her eyes instantly, my desire no
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  Speaker 1: longer frantic, but sane was awake again. It was just
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  Speaker 1: like going to Checkshiel in the old time. After writing
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  Speaker 1: about socialism, I relinquished her hand. It was absurd to
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  Speaker 1: part in these terms, so we all felt it. We
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  Speaker 1: hung awkwardly over our sense of that. It was there all,
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  Speaker 1: I think who shaped the thought for me and said
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  Speaker 1: that tomorrow then we must meet and say good bye.
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  Speaker 1: And so turned our encounter into a transitory making of arrangements.
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  Speaker 1: We settled we would come to the inn at menton
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  Speaker 1: all three of us and take our midday meal together. Yes,
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  Speaker 1: it was clear, that was all we had to say.
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  Speaker 1: Now we parted a little awkwardly. I went on down
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  Speaker 1: the village street, not looking back, surprised at myself and
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  Speaker 1: infinitely perplexed. It was as if I had discovered something
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  Speaker 1: overlooked that disarranged all my plans, something entirely disconcerting for
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  Speaker 1: the first time. I went back, preoccupied and without eagerness
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  Speaker 1: to Melmount's work. I wanted to go on thinking about Nettie.
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  Speaker 1: My mind had suddenly become voluminously productive concerning her and
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  Speaker 1: ver all In of Book three, Chapter one, Section one