Page:HG Wells--secret places of the heart.djvu/164

152 the little priest they had left down below there, performing antiquated puerile mysteries at his altar. He was just their excuse for doing it all.”

“Sky-scrapers?” she conceded. “An early display of the sky-scraper spirit.... You are doing your best to make me feel thoroughly at home.”

“You are more at home here still than in that new country of ours over the Atlantic. But it seems to me now that I do begin to remember building this cathedral and all the other cathedrals we built in Europe.... It was the fun of building made us do it...”

“H’m,” she said. “And my sky-scrapers?”

“Still the fun of building. That is the thing I envy most about America. It’s still large enough, mentally and materially, to build all sorts of things.... Over here, the sites are frightfully crowded....”

“And what do you think we are building now? And what do you think you are building over here?”

“What are we building now? I believe we have almost grown up. I believe it is time we began to build in earnest. For good....”

“But are we building anything at all?”

“A new world.”

“Show it me,” she said.

“We’re still only at the foundations,” said Sir Richmond. “Nothing shows as yet.”