Page:The Works of H G Wells Volume 9.pdf/250

 § 2

Our conversation at that first encounter would do very little to develop the Modern Utopia in my mind. Inevitably, it would be personal and emotional. He would tell me how he stood in his world, and I how I stood in mine. I should have to tell him things, I should have to explain things

No, the conversation would contribute nothing to a modern Utopia.

And so I leave it out.

§ 3

But I should go back to my botanist in a state of emotional relaxation. At first I should not heed the fact that he, too, had been in some manner stirred. "I have seen him," I should say needlessly, and seem to be on the verge of telling the untellable. Then I should fade off into: "It's the strangest thing."

He would interrupt me with his own preoccupation. "You know," he would say, "I've seen someone."

I should pause and look at him.

"She is in this world," he says.

"Who is in this world?"

"Mary!"

I have not heard her name before, but I understand, of course, at once.

"I saw her," he explains.

"Saw her?" 222