Page:HG Wells--secret places of the heart.djvu/261

Rh the same time I must watch and read and think and learn how to be the servant of the world.... We two have to live like trusted servants who have been made guardians of a helpless minor. We have to put things in order and keep them in order against the time when Man—Man whom we call in America the Common Man—can take hold of his world——”

“And release his servants,” said Sir Richmond.

“All that is perfectly clear in my mind. That is what I am going to live for; that is what I have to do.”

She stopped abruptly. “All that is about as interesting to-night—in comparison with the touch of your dear fingers—as next month’s railway time-table.”

But later she found a topic that could hold their attention for a time.

“We have never said a word about religion,” she said.

Sir Richmond paused for a moment. “I am a godless man,” he said. “The stars and space and time overwhelm my imagination. I cannot imagine anything above or beyond them.”

She thought that over. “But there are divine things,” she said.

“You are divine.... I’m not talking lovers’ nonsense,” he hastened to add. “I mean that there is something about human beings—not just