H G Wells

Mr. Britling Sees It Through H G Wells

It was the sixth day of Mr. Direck's first visit to England, and he was at his acutest perception ofdifferences. He found England in every way gratifying and satisfactory, and more of a contrast withthings American than he had ever dared to hope. He had promised himself this visit for many years, but being of a sunny rather than energetictemperament-though he firmly believed himself to be a reservoir of clear-sighted Americanenergy-he had allowed all sorts of things, and more particularly the uncertainties of Miss MamieNelson, to keep him back. But now there were no more uncertainties about Miss Mamie Nelson, and Mr. Direck had come over to England just to convince himself and everybody else that therewere other interests in life for him than Mamie.... And also, he wanted to see the old country from which his maternal grandmother had sprung. Wasn't there even now in his bedroom in New York a water-colour of Market Saffron church, where the dear old lady had been confirmed? And generally he wanted to see Europe. As aninteresting side show to the excursion he hoped, in his capacity of the rather underworked andrather over-salaried secretary of the Massachusetts Society for the Study of Contemporary Thought, to discuss certain agreeable possibilities with Mr. Britling, who lived at Matching's Ea