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In the Days of the Comet Epilogue · The H. G. Wells Library

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  Speaker 1: This is the epilogue the Window of the Tower, section
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  Speaker 1: thirty five from In the Days of the Comet. This
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  Speaker 1: is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the
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  Speaker 1: public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit
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  Speaker 1: LibriVox dot org. Recording by Steve mc daniel. This was
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  Speaker 1: as much as this pleasant looking, gray haired man had written.
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  Speaker 1: I had been lost in his story throughout the earlier
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  Speaker 1: portions of it, forgetful of the writer and his gracious
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  Speaker 1: room and the high tower in which he was sitting.
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  Speaker 1: But gradually, as I drew near the end, the sense
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  Speaker 1: of strangeness returned to me. It was more and more
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  Speaker 1: evident to me that this was a different humanity from
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  Speaker 1: any I had known, unreal having different customs, different beliefs,
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  Speaker 1: different interpretations, different emotions. It was no mere change in
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  Speaker 1: conditions and institutions, the comment had wrote. It had made
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  Speaker 1: a change of heart and mind. In a manner it
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  Speaker 1: had dehumanized the world, robbed it of its spites, its
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  Speaker 1: little jealousies, its inconsistencies, its humor. At the end, and
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  Speaker 1: particularly after the death of his mother, I felt his
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  Speaker 1: story had slipped away from my sympathies altogether. Those beltane
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  Speaker 1: fires had burnt something in him that worked living still,
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  Speaker 1: and unsubdued in me that rebelled. In particular, at that
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  Speaker 1: return of Nettie, I became a little inattentive. I no
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  Speaker 1: longer felt with him, nor gathered a sense of complete
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  Speaker 1: understanding from his phrases. His Lord Eros, indeed, he and
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  Speaker 1: these transfigured people. They were beautiful and noble people, like
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  Speaker 1: the people one sees in great pictures, like the gods
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  Speaker 1: of noble sculpture. But they had no nearer fellowship than
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  Speaker 1: these to men. As the change was realized. With every
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  Speaker 1: stage of realization, the gulf widened, and it was harder
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  Speaker 1: to follow his words. I put down the last fascicle
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  Speaker 1: of all and met his friendly eyes. It was hard
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  Speaker 1: to dislike him. I felt a subtle embarrassment in putting
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  Speaker 1: the question that perplexed me, and yet it seemed so
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  Speaker 1: material to me. I had to put it. And did you?
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  Speaker 1: I asked? Were you lovers? His eyebrows rose, of course,
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  Speaker 1: but your wife, it was manifest. He did not understand me.
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  Speaker 1: I hesitated still more. I was perplexed by a conviction
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  Speaker 1: of baseness. But I began you remained lovers? Yes, I
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  Speaker 1: had grave doubts if I understood him or he me.
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  Speaker 1: I made a still more courageous attempt, and had Nettie
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  Speaker 1: no other love a beautiful woman like that. I know
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  Speaker 1: not how many loved beauty in her, nor what she
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  Speaker 1: found in others. But we four from that time were
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  Speaker 1: very close, you understand. We were friends, helpers, personal lovers
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  Speaker 1: in a world of lovers. Four that was verral. Then
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  Speaker 1: suddenly it came to me that the thoughts that stirred
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  Speaker 1: in my mind were sinister and base, that the queer suspicions,
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  Speaker 1: the coarseness and coarse jealousies of my old world were
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  Speaker 1: over and done for these more finely living souls you made,
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  Speaker 1: I said, trying to be liberal minded, A home together,
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  Speaker 1: a home. He looked at me, and I know not why.
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  Speaker 1: I glanced down at my feet. What a clumsy, ill
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  Speaker 1: made thing a boot is, and how hard and colorless
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  Speaker 1: seemed my clothing. How harshly I stood out amidst these fine,
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  Speaker 1: perfected things. I had a moment of rebellious detestation. I
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  Speaker 1: wanted to get out of all this, after all, it
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  Speaker 1: wasn't my style. I wanted intensely to say something that
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  Speaker 1: would bring him down a peg, make sure, as it were,
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  Speaker 1: of my suspicions, by launching an offensive accusation. I looked up,
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  Speaker 1: and he was standing I forgot, He said, you are
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  Speaker 1: pretending the old world is still going on. Omme. He
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  Speaker 1: put out his hand, and quite noiselessly, the great window
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  Speaker 1: widened down to us, and the splendid, nearer prospect of
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  Speaker 1: that dream land city was before me. There for one
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  Speaker 1: clear moment I saw it, its galleries and open spaces,
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  Speaker 1: its trees of golden fruit and crystal waters, its music
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  Speaker 1: and rejoicing love and beauty without easing, flowing through its
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  Speaker 1: varied and intricate streets. And the nearer people I saw
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  Speaker 1: now directly and plainly, and no longer in the distorted
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  Speaker 1: mirror that hung overhead. They really did not justify my suspicions.
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  Speaker 1: And yet they were such people as one sees on earth,
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  Speaker 1: save that they were changed. How can I express that
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  Speaker 1: change as a woman is changed in the eyes of
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  Speaker 1: her lover, as a woman is changed by the love
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  Speaker 1: of her lover. They were exalted. I stood up beside
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  Speaker 1: him and looked out. I was a little flushed, my
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  Speaker 1: ears a little reddened by the inconvenience of my curiosities
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  Speaker 1: and by my uneasy sense of profound moral differences. He
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  Speaker 1: was taller than I. This is our home, he said,
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  Speaker 1: smiling and with thoughtful eyes on me. And of epilogue,
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  Speaker 1: section thirty five and end of In the Days of
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  Speaker 1: the Comet by H. G. Wells, recording by Steve mc daniel,