A MODERN UTOPIA
"There's no positive compulsion," he remarks, "but your work here will probably cease. Here—" he pushed the neat slips of paper towards us—"are your tickets for London, and a sufficient supply of money,"—he indicates two piles of coins and paper on either hand of him—"for a day or so there." He proceeds in the same dry manner to inform us we are invited to call at our earliest convenience upon our doubles, and upon the Professor who is to investigate our case.
"And then?"
He pulls down the corners of his mouth in a wry deprecatory smile, eyes us obliquely under a crumpled brow, shrugs his shoulders, and shows us the palms of his hands.
On earth, where there is nationality, this would have been a Frenchman—the inferior sort of Frenchman—the sort whose only happiness is in the routine security of Government employment.
§ 6
London will be the first Utopian city centre we shall see.
We shall find ourselves there with not a little amazement. It will be our first experience of the swift long-distance travel of Utopia, and I have an idea—I know not why—that we should make the journey by night. Perhaps I think so because the ideal of long-distance travel is surely a restful translation less suitable for the active hours.
We shall dine and gossip and drink coffee at the
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