Page:The Works of H G Wells Volume 11.pdf/198

 people might play as artists or guides, or beast tamers or the like, in a wholly civilised world. Such a collection would be far beyond the vastest possibilities to which Woldingstanton could ever attain—but he loved the dream.

The groups would stand in well-lit bays, side chapels, so to speak, in his museum building. There would be a crescent of seats and a black-board, for it was one of his fantasies to have a school so great that the classes would move about it, like little parties of pilgrims in a cathedral

From that he drifted to a scheme for grouping great schools for such common purposes as the educational development of the cinematograph, a central reference library, and the like

For one great school leads to another. Schools are living things, and like all living things they must grow and reproduce their kind and go on from conquest to conquest—or fall under the sway of the Farrs and Dads, and stagnate, become diseased and malignant, and perish. But Woldingstanton was not to perish. It was to spread. It was to call to its kind across the Atlantic and throughout the world It was to give and receive ideas, interbreed, and develop

Across the blue October sky the white clouds drifted, and the air was full of the hum of a passing aeroplane. The chained dog that had once tortured the sick nerves of Mr. Huss now barked unheeded.

"I would like to give one of the chapels of the races to the memory of Gilbert," whispered Mr. Huss