Page:The Works of H G Wells Volume 1.pdf/249

Rh two that, and when I caressed one it caused the most uncomfortable"

"Stinging nettle!" said the Vicar.

"At any rate a new sort of pain. And another plant with a head like a coronet, and richly decorated leaves, spiked and jagged"

"A thistle, possibly."

"And in your garden, the beautiful, sweet-smelling plant"

"The sweet brier," said the Vicar. "I remember."

"And that pink flower that sprang out of the box"

"Out of the box?" said the Vicar.

"Last night," said the Angel, "that went climbing up the curtains Flame!"

"Oh!—the matches and the candles! Yes," said the Vicar.

"Then the animals. A dog to-day behaved most disagreeably And these boys, and the way in which people speak Every one seems anxious—willing at any rate—to give this Pain. Every one seems busy giving pain"

"Or avoiding it," said the Vicar, pushing his dinner away before him. "Yes—of course. It's fighting everywhere. The whole living world is a battle-field—the whole world. We are driven by Pain. Here. How it lies on the surface! This Angel sees it in a day!"

"But why does every one—everything—want to give pain?" asked the Angel.

"It is not so in the Angelic Land?" said the Vicar.

"No," said the Angel. "Why is it so here?" 217