News from Nowhere, or, an Epoch of Rest : being some chapters from a utopian romance by William Morris
page 69 of 269 (25%)
page 69 of 269 (25%)
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ours,--do you know anything or nothing about us?"
He looked at me keenly and with growing wonder in his eyes as he spoke; and I answered in a low voice: "I know only so much of your modern life as I could gather from using my eyes on the way here from Hammersmith, and from asking some questions of Richard Hammond, most of which he could hardly understand." The old man smiled at this. "Then," said he, "I am to speak to you as--" "As if I were a being from another planet," said I. The old man, whose name, by the bye, like his kinsman's, was Hammond, smiled and nodded, and wheeling his seat round to me, bade me sit in a heavy oak chair, and said, as he saw my eyes fix on its curious carving: "Yes, I am much tied to the past, my past, you understand. These very pieces of furniture belong to a time before my early days; it was my father who got them made; if they had been done within the last fifty years they would have been much cleverer in execution; but I don't think I should have liked them the better. We were almost beginning again in those days: and they were brisk, hot-headed times. But you hear how garrulous I am: ask me questions, ask me questions about anything, dear guest; since I must talk, make my talk profitable to you." |
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