The First Men in the Moon | Page 7

you must remember, that I had been alone,
play-writing in Lympne, for fourteen days, and my compunction for his
ruined walk still hung about me. "Why not," said I, "make this your
new habit? In the place of the one I spoilt? At least, until we can settle
about the bungalow. What you want is to turn over your work in your
mind. That you have always done during your afternoon walk.
Unfortunately that's over - you can't get things back as they were. But
why not come and talk about your work to me; use me as a sort of wall
against which you may throw your thoughts and catch them again ? It's
certain I don't know enough to steal your ideas myself - and I know no
scientific men -".
I stopped. He was considering. Evidently the thing, attracted him. "But
I'm afraid I should bore you," he said.
"You think I'm too dull? "
" Oh, no; but technicalities "

"Anyhow, you've interested me immensely this afternoon."
" Of course it would be a great help to me. Nothing clears up one's
ideas so much as explaining them. Hitherto - "
" My dear sir, say no more."
" But really can you spare the time? "
" There is no rest like change of occupation," I said, with profound
conviction.
The affair was over. On my verandah steps he turned. "I am already
greatly indebted to you," he said.
I made an interrogative noise.
" You have completely cured me of that ridiculous habit of humming,"
he explained.
I think I said I was glad to be of any service to him, and he turned
away.
Immediately the train of thought that our conversation had suggested
must have resumed its sway. His arms began to wave in their former
fashion. The faint echo of "zuzzoo" came back to me on the breeze. ...
Well, after all, that was not my affair. ...
He came the next day, and again the next day after that, and delivered
two lectures on physics to our mutual satisfaction. He talked with an air
of being extremely lucid about the "ether" and "tubes of force," and "
gravitational potential," and things like that, and I sat in my other
folding-chair and said, " Yes," " Go on," " I follow you," to keep him
going. It was tremendously difficult stuff, but I do not thing he ever
suspected how much I did not understand him. There were moments
when I doubted whether I was well employed, but at any rate I was
resting from that confounded play. Now and then things gleamed on me
clearly for a space, only to vanish just when I thought I had hold of

them. Sometimes my attention failed altogether, and I would give it up
and sit and stare at him, wondering whether, after all, it would not be
better to use him as a central figure in a good farce and let all this other
stuff slide. And then, perhaps, I would catch on again for a bit.
At the earliest opportunity I went to see his house It was large and
carelessly furnished; there were no servants other than his three
assistants, and his dietary and private life were characterised by a
philosophical simplicity. He was a water-drinker, a vegetarian, and all
those logical disciplinary things. But the sight of his equipment settled
many doubts. It looked like business from cellar to attic - an amazing
little place to find in an out-of-the-way village. The ground-floor rooms
contained benches and apparatus, the bakehouse and scullery boiler had
developed into respectable furnaces, dynamos occupied the cellar, and
there was a gasometer in the garden. He showed it to me with all the
confiding zest of a man who has been living too much alone. His
seclusion was overflowing now in an excess of confidence, and I had
the good luck to be the recipient.
The three assistants were creditable specimens of the class of"
handy-men " from which they came. Conscientious if unintelligent,
strong, civil, and willing. One, Spargus, who did the cooking and all
the metal work, had been a sailor; a second, Gibbs, was a joiner; and
the third was an ex-jobbing gardener, and now general assistant. They
were the merest labourers. All the intelligent work was done by Cavor.
Theirs was the darkest ignorance compared even with my muddled
impression.
And now, as to the nature of these inquiries. Here, unhappily, comes a
grave difficulty. I am no scientific expert, and if I were to attempt to set
forth in the highly scientific language of Mr. Cavor the aim to which
his experiments tended, I am afraid I should confuse not only the reader
but myself, and almost certainly I should make