The Sleeper Awakes. Герберт Уэллс

every possible interpretation of his position he debated – even as it chanced, the right interpretation. Things that presently happened to him, came to him at last credible, by virtue of this seclusion. When at length the moment of his release arrived, it found him prepared…

      Howard's bearing went far to deepen Graham's impression of his own strange importance; the door between its opening and closing seemed to admit with him a breath of momentous happening. His enquiries became more definite and searching. Howard retreated through protests and difficulties. The awakening was unforeseen, he repeated; it happened to have fallen in with the trend of a social convulsion. "To explain it I must tell you the history of a gross and a half of years," protested Howard.

      "The thing is this," said Graham. "You are afraid of something I shall do. In some way I am arbitrator – I might be arbitrator."

      "It is not that. But you have – I may tell you this much – the automatic increase of your property puts great possibilities of interference in your hands. And in certain other ways you have influence, with your eighteenth century notions."

      "Nineteenth century," corrected Graham.

      "With your old world notions, anyhow, ignorant as you are of every feature of our State."

      "Am I a fool?"

      "Certainly not."

      "Do I seem to be the sort of man who would act rashly?"

      "You were never expected to act at all. No one counted on your awakening. No one dreamt you would ever awake. The Council had surrounded you with antiseptic conditions. As a matter of fact, we thought that you were dead – a mere arrest of decay. And – but it is too complex. We dare not suddenly – while you are still half awake."

      "It won't do," said Graham. "Suppose it is as you say – why am I not being crammed night and day with facts and warnings and all the wisdom of the time to fit me for my responsibilities? Am I any wiser now than two days ago, if it is two days, when I awoke?"

      Howard pulled his lip.

      "I am beginning to feel – every hour I feel more clearly – a system of concealment of which you are the face. Is this Council, or committee, or whatever they are, cooking the accounts of my estate? Is that it?"

      "That note of suspicion – " said Howard.

      "Ugh!" said Graham. "Now, mark my words, it will be ill for those who have put me here. It will be ill. I am alive. Make no doubt of it, I am alive. Every day my pulse is stronger and my mind clearer and more vigorous. No more quiescence. I am a man come back to life. And I want to live– "

      "Live!"

      Howard's face lit with an idea. He came towards Graham and spoke in an easy confidential tone.

      "The Council secludes you here for your good. You are restless.

      Naturally – an energetic man! You find it dull here. But we are anxious that everything you may desire – every desire – every sort of desire …

      There may be something. Is there any sort of company?"

      He paused meaningly.

      "Yes," said Graham thoughtfully. "There is."

      "Ah! Now! We have treated you neglectfully."

      "The crowds in yonder streets of yours."

      "That," said Howard, "I am afraid – But – "

      Graham began pacing the room. Howard stood near the door watching him. The implication of Howard's suggestion was only half evident to Graham. Company? Suppose he were to accept the proposal, demand some sort of company? Would there be any possibilities of gathering from the conversation of this additional person some vague inkling of the struggle that had broken out so vividly at his waking moment? He meditated again, and the suggestion took colour. He turned on Howard abruptly.

      "What do you mean by company?"

      Howard raised his eyes and shrugged his shoulders. "Human beings," he said, with a curious smile on his heavy face. "Our social ideas," he said, "have a certain increased liberality, perhaps, in comparison with your times. If a man wishes to relieve such a tedium as this – by feminine society, for instance. We think it no scandal. We have cleared our minds of formulae. There is in our city a class, a necessary class, no longer despised – discreet – "

      Graham stopped dead.

      "It would pass the time," said Howard. "It is a thing I should perhaps have thought of before, but, as a matter of fact, so much is happening – "

      He indicated the exterior world.

      Graham hesitated. For a moment the figure of a possible woman dominated his mind with an intense attraction. Then he flashed into anger.

      "No!" he shouted.

      He began striding rapidly up and down the room. "Everything you say, everything you do, convinces me – of some great issue in which I am concerned. I do not want to pass the time, as you call it. Yes, I know. Desire and indulgence are life in a sense – and Death! Extinction! In my life before I slept I had worked out that pitiful question. I will not begin again. There is a city, a multitude – . And meanwhile I am here like a rabbit in a bag."