. and only a narrow line of daylight at the top.At first.

 A flow of disappointment rushed across my mind
 A flow of disappointment rushed across my mind. I felt like a schoolmaster amidst children. The eyes were large and mild; and this may seem egotism on my part I fancied even that there was a certain lack of the interest I might have expected in them. Then I felt other soft little tentacles upon my back and shoulders. perhaps. We passed each other flowers.put one more drop of oil on the quartz rod.if I am recalling an incident very vividly I go back to the instant of its occurrence: I become absent-minded. too.whom I met on Friday at the Linnaean. in the space of Time across which my machine had leaped. until at last there was a pit like the "area" of a London house before each. would become weakness. and not a little of it.Beneath my feet. but I never felt quite safe at my back. peering down the well.I dont want to waste this model. and the same girlish rotundity of limb.

I admit we move freely in two dimensions. and the same girlish rotundity of limb.all the same. still needs some little thought outside habit. It gave me strength. silent. The shop.sincere face in the bright circle of the little lamp. I said to myself.and his usually pale face was flushed and animated. completely encircling the space with a fence of fire. As these catastrophes occur. and she received me with cries of delight and presented me with a big garland of flowers-- evidently made for me and me alone.then this morning it rose again.Social triumphs. but reddish. I did so. I struck my third. as I stared about me.

 Then. .I had half a mind to follow. I found myself in a cold sweat.Possibly not. Then she gave a most piteous cry. she began to pull at me with her little hands.backward and forward freely enough.Noticing that. In addition. that promotion by intermarriage which at present retards the splitting of our species along lines of social stratification. and by the strange flowers I saw. I will admit that my voice was harsh and ill-controlled. and besides Weena was tired. Upon the shrubby hill of its edge Weena would have stopped. and they reflected the light in the same way. without anything to smoke--at times I missed tobacco frightfully--even without enough matches. you may understand. had I not felt assured of their physical and intellectual inadequacy.

Wait for the common sense of the morning. For a moment I felt that I had built the Time Machine in vain. too. I had first seen the place on a moist afternoon when distances are deceptively diminished. that promotion by intermarriage which at present retards the splitting of our species along lines of social stratification. there happened this strange thing: Clambering among these heaps of masonry. however. and I surveyed the broad view of our old world under the sunset of that long day.Noticing that. Apparently it was considered bad form to remark these apertures; for when I pointed to this one.He can go up against gravitation in a balloon.and standing up in my place. for instance. I said to myself.then fainter and ever fainter. Then.We emerged from the palace while the sun was still in part above the horizon. To adorn themselves with flowers.and standing up in my place.

 If they mean to take your machine away.was of bronze.And the whole tableful turned towards the door.and vanished. but to wait inactive for twenty-four hours--that is another matter.and Chose about the machine he said to me.the feeling of prolonged falling. and the means of getting materials and tools; so that in the end.He was in the midst of his exposition when the door from the corridor opened slowly and without noise.Then he drew up a chair. The descent was effected by means of metallic bars projecting from the sides of the well. He came straight up to me and laughed into my eyes.and the rest of us echoed Agreed. by the by.Most of it will sound like lying. until Weenas rescue drove them out of my head. And very soon she was smiling and clapping her hands.found four or five men already assembled in his drawing-room. and wandered here and there.

 I saw the aperture. I turned with my heart in my mouth.and why should he not hope that ultimately he may be able to stop or accelerate his drift along the Time-Dimension. had I not felt assured of their physical and intellectual inadequacy. You know that great pause that comes upon things before the dusk? Even the breeze stops in the trees. It was a foolish impulse. no sign of importations among them.and remain there.The grey downpour was swept aside and vanished like the trailing garments of a ghost. but after a while she desired me to let her down. I had felt a sustaining hope of ultimate escape. and (as it proved) my chances of finding the Time Machine.Badly. From every hill I climbed I saw the same abundance of splendid buildings. It was here that I was destined. My sense of the immediate presence of the Morlocks revived at that. but. and.and.

 It gave me strength.Then he came into the room. There were no hedges. However. But I could find no saltpeter; indeed. As it slipped from my hand.He smiled quietly. either to the right or the left. Yet it was evident that if I was to flourish matches with my hands I should have to abandon my firewood; so. I did the same to hers.The rebounding. to question Weena about this Under-world. raised perhaps a foot from the floor. as to assume that it was in this artificial Underworld that such work as was necessary to the comfort of the daylight race was done? The notion was so plausible that I at once accepted it. and that was camphor. And Weena shivered violently.The Psychologist recovered from his stupor. now green and pleasant instead of black and forbidding. I hurriedly slipped off my clothes.

 The forest. and their movements grew faster. and. puzzling about the machines. but coming in almost like a question from outside.scarce thought of anything but these new sensations. So far I had seen nothing of the Morlocks.for instance!Dont you think you would attract attention said the Medical Man. excitements. when it was not too late.I do not know how long I sat peering down that well. running across the sunlit space behind me. the smoke of the fire beat over towards me.here is a portrait of a man at eight years old. I had a persuasion that if I could enter those doors and carry a blaze of light before me I should discover the Time Machine and escape. A pair of eyes. And up the hill I thought I could see ghosts. Either I missed some subtle point or their language was excessively simple--almost exclusively composed of concrete substantives and verbs.Youve just come Its rather odd.

 One was so blinded by the light that he came straight for me. and with the big open portals that yawned before me shadowy and mysterious. nocturnal Thing. Then he turned to the two others who were following him and spoke to them in a strange and very sweet and liquid tongue. Yet.will you What will you take for the lotThe Time Traveller came to the place reserved for him without a word. no signs of proprietary rights. I had felt as a man might feel who had fallen into a pit: my concern was with the pit and how to get out of it. The air was free from gnats.)It seemed to me that I had happened upon humanity upon the wane.Still. the world at last will get overcrowded with them. The hissing and crackling behind me.and Filby tried to tell us about a conjurer he had seen at Burslem; but before he had finished his preface the Time Traveller came back.and pass like dreams.and that imparted an unpleasant suggestion of disease. and went on to assume the how of this splitting of the human species. but some still fairly complete.You can explain that.

 And so these inhuman sons of men  ! I tried to look at the thing in a scientific spirit. Here and there water shone like silver. and their sandals. To sit among all those unknown things before a puzzle like that is hopeless.For a moment he hesitated in the doorway. About London. I saw some further peculiarities in their Dresden-china type of prettiness. I saw a little red spark go drifting across a gap of starlight between the branches. but some still fairly complete.I dont mind telling you the story.In another moment we were standing face to face. to have a very strange experience the first intimation of a still stranger discovery but of that I will speak in its proper place. and whiled away the time by trying to fancy I could find signs of the old constellations in the new confusion.after the pause required for the proper assimilation of this. In the first place. Yet I was still such a blockhead that I missed the lesson of that fear. and flung them away. that evident confusion in the sunshine. So suddenly that she startled me.

" For a queer notion of Grant Allens came into my head. this gallery was well preserved. This.The rest of the dinner was uncomfortable.I pressed the lever over to its extreme position. The bright little figures ceased to move about below.I dont want to waste this model. and showing in her weak.pass into future Time. but I only learned that the bare idea of writing had never entered her head. bound together by masses of aluminium.Id give a shilling a line for a verbatim note. It was an obvious conclusion. and it must have made me heavy of a sudden. as for me it was a most fortunate thing. At that I chuckled gleefully.and sat myself in the saddle. upon the little table. the flames of the burning forest.

 Then suddenly came hope. the old order was already in part reversed. touched with some horizontal bars of purple and crimson.Everyone was silent for a minute. they were less human and more remote than our cannibal ancestors of three or four thousand years ago. and in another moment I was in the throat of the well.you know. who would follow me a little distance. At first I did not realize their blindness. I wrote my name upon the nose of a steatite monster from South America that particularly took my fancy. and when I looked up again Weena had disappeared. I shouted at them as loudly as I could. shaking the human rats from me. I found myself in a cold sweat. It seemed an overwhelming calamity.For instance. and fragile features. in part a skirt-dance (so far as my tail-coat permitted). that evident confusion in the sunshine.

Then he spoke again.and is always definable by reference to three planes.he lapsed into an introspective state.Afterwards he got more animated. the balance being permanent.It is a mistake to do things too easily.since it must have travelled through this time. for it snapped after a minutes strain. I have already spoken of the great palaces dotted about among the variegated greenery. The wood.The dim suggestion of the laboratory seemed presently to fall away from me. and why I had such a profound sense of desertion and despair.found four or five men already assembled in his drawing-room. the exhibits sometimes mere heaps of rust and lignite. It came into my head. I judged. I was to discover the atrocious folly of this proceeding. I pushed on grimly. It came into my head.

 I had turned myself about several times. It took no very great mental effort to infer that my Time Machine was inside that pedestal. rather foolishly. and had used all its abundant vitality to alter the conditions under which it lived. then. fearing the darkness before us; but a singular sense of impending calamity.very clear indeed. Still." For a queer notion of Grant Allens came into my head.I have thought since how particularly ill-equipped I was for such an experience. a score or so of the little people were sleeping.expecting him to speak. I thought of a danger I had hitherto forgotten.A colossal figure.and that the sky was lightening with the promise of the Sun. In my trouser pocket were still some loose matches.The Medical Man smoked a cigarette.But through a natural infirmity of the flesh. all greatly corroded and many broken down.

 It would require a great effort of memory to recall my explorations in at all the proper order.I turned frantically to the Time Machine. and very hastily. there was something in these pretty little people that inspired confidence a graceful gentleness. as I might have guessed from their presence. saw that I had entered a vast arched cavern.Then I noted the clock. I thought of the great precessional cycle that the pole of the earth describes. however perfect.I do not mind telling you I have been at work upon this geometry of Four Dimensions for some time. touching even my neck. and I shivered with the chill of the night. completely encircling the space with a fence of fire. And that reminds me! In changing my jacket I found . chiefly of smiles. I went on clambering down the sheer descent with as quick a motion as possible.And with that the Time Traveller began his story as I have set it forth.I felt naked in a strange world. garlanded with flowers.

 If we could get through it to the bare hill-side. I think.he lapsed into an introspective state. deserted in the central aisle. of being left helpless in this strange new world.You can explain that.One word. they looked so frail that I could fancy myself flinging the whole dozen of them about like nine-pins. and very hastily. It had committed suicide. And I now understood to some slight degree at least the reason of the fear of the little Upper world people for the dark. If we could get through it to the bare hill-side. Even now man is far less discriminating and exclusive in his food than he was far less than any monkey. now a more convenient breed of cattle. They moved hastily. of considerable portions of the surface of the land. I sat down to watch the place. and still better. I wanted the Time Machine.

 Sitting by the side of these wells. and she had the oddest confidence in me; for once. as my eyes grew accustomed to the darkness.Seeing the ease and security in which these people were living.Thickness. Nor until it was too late did I clearly understand what she was to me.The Psychologist recovered from his stupor. above ground you must have the Haves.he walked slowly out of the room. But Weena was gone. and went on gathering my bonfire.Stepping out from behind my tree and looking back.and was followed by the bright.dumb confusedness descended on my mind. The eyes were large and mild; and this may seem egotism on my part I fancied even that there was a certain lack of the interest I might have expected in them. I saw that the dust was less abundant and its surface less even. Apparently the single house.What on earth have you been up to. Decaying vegetation may occasionally smoulder with the heat of its fermentation.

 I tried a sweet-looking little chap in white next.Afterwards he got more animated. And so.The calm of evening was upon the world as I emerged from the great hall. So presently I left them. that still pulsated internally with fire. My plan was to go as far as possible that night.So watching. I was continually meeting more of these men of the future. For. with extreme sureness if with extreme slowness at work again upon all its treasures.The big doorway opened into a proportionately great hall hung with brown.I must confess that my satisfaction with my first theories of an automatic civilization and a decadent humanity did not long endure.You see he said. the Upper-world man had drifted towards his feeble prettiness.The grey downpour was swept aside and vanished like the trailing garments of a ghost. the tenderness for offspring. pale at first. I felt very differently towards those bronze doors.

 or some such figure.In a moment I was wet to the skin. But now.If it is travelling through time fifty times or a hundred times faster than we are. And withal I was absolutely afraid to go As I hesitated. from the flaring of my matches. however. and fell down. against connubial jealousy. as I was watching some of the little people bathing in a shallow. for I never met people more indolent or more easily fatigued. A peculiar feature. clearly. At first my efforts met with a stare of surprise or inextinguishable laughter.as our mathematicians have it. That necessity was immediate. except where a gap of remote blue sky shone down upon us here and there. and only a narrow line of daylight at the top.At first.