1894

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[Editor’s Note: The University of Illinois possesses the most comprehensive collection of the papers of H.G. Wells in the world The following document is one of the few critical Wells papers never acquired by the University. It is made public here for the first time.]

Even as I passed through the doorway I wondered if I had entered the right place.

It was a rather large chamber with a high ceiling and an oversized fireplace with a dying bed of coals. Above the fireplace hung an oversized flag. At first I thought it was the Union Jack. It had the same blue cross bars on a field of red. Closer inspection showed stars within the bars. This was the flag of the American Confederacy.

An officer in a rumpled gray uniform sat at a nearby table. I couldn’t quite make out the rank. A colonel as a receptionist? I wondered. The Patent Office must really be an important place!

He held a small glass in one hand and a bottle in the other. He stood as I entered. “Come in, suh, come in! You’re just in time to join me in a toast to the second-greatest man who ever lived. Here, I’ll pour you a glass.” He spoke with an accent, definitely un-British, yet soft and pleasant, and as he spoke an odd thing happened to his face. A bulge in his right cheek vanished and reappeared in his left cheek.

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