Kipps, page 289 by H.G. Wells
<< Return to Title Details & Download290
emy, the ideas of Coote, the ideas of the old Kippses, all the ideas that have made Kipps what he is--all these are a part of its shadow. But for that monster they might not be groping among false ideas to hurt one another so sorely; but for that, the glowing promise of childhood and youth might have had a happier fruition; thought might have awakened in them to meet the thought of the world, the quickening sunshine of literature pierced to the substance of their souls; their lives might not have been divorced, as now they are divorced, from the apprehension of beauty that we favoured ones are given--the vision of the Grail that makes life fine for ever. I have laughed, and I laugh at these two people; I have sought to make you laugh...
But I see through the darkness the souls of my Kippses as they are, as little pink strips of quivering, living stuff, as things like the bodies of little, ill-nourished, ailing, ignorant children--children who feel pain, who are naughty and muddled and suffer, and do not understand why. And the claw of this Beast rests upon them!
CHAPTER THE
THIRD
Terminations
1
NEXT morning came a remarkable telegram from Folkestone. 'Please come at once--urgent--Walshinghams,' said the telegram, and Kipps, after an agitated but still ample breakfast, departed...
When he returned his face was very white, and his countenance disordered. He let himself in with his latchkey and came into the dining-room, where Ann sat, affecting to work at a little thing she called a bib. She heard his hat fall in the hall before he entered, as though he had missed the peg. 'I got something to tell you, Ann,' he said, disregarding their overnight quarrel, and went to the hearthrug and took hold of the mantel and stared at Ann as though the sight of her was novel.
'Well?' said Ann, not looking up, and working a little faster.
''E's gone!'
Ann looked up sharply, and her hands stoppe