Page:HG Wells--secret places of the heart.djvu/189

Rh order, a disciplined mankind going on to greater things. Don’t you?”

“Now you tell me of it,” she said with a smile, “I do.”

“But before——?”

“No. You’ve made it clear. It wasn’t clear before.”

“I’ve been talking of this sort of thing with my friend Dr. Martineau. And I’ve been thinking as well as talking. That perhaps is why I’m so clear and positive.”

“I don’t complain that you are clear and positive. I’ve been coming along the same way.... It’s refreshing to meet you.”

“I found it refreshing to meet Martineau.” A twinge of conscience about Dr. Martineau turned Sir Richmond into a new channel. “He’s a most interesting man,” he said. “Rather shy in some respects. Devoted to his work. And he’s writing a book which has saturated him in these ideas. Only two nights ago we stood here and talked about it. The Psychology of a New Age. The world, he believes, is entering upon a new phase in its history, the adolescence, so to speak, of mankind. It is an idea that seizes the imagination. There is a flow of new ideas abroad, he thinks, widening realizations, unprecedented hopes and fears. There is a consciousness of new powers and new responsibilities. We are sharing the adolescence of our race. It is giving history a new and