II The Machine chapter 2 paragraph 15 among 26 paragraphs
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“Because I presume that it has not moved in space, and if it
travelled into the future it would still be here all this time, since it
must have travelled through this time.”
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“But,” said I, “If it travelled into the past it would
have been visible when we came first into this room; and last Thursday when
we were here; and the Thursday before that; and so forth!”
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“Serious objections,” remarked the Provincial Mayor, with an
air of impartiality, turning towards the Time Traveller.
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“Not a bit,” said the Time Traveller, and, to the
Psychologist: “You think. You can explain that. It’s
presentation below the threshold, you know, diluted
presentation.”
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“Of course,” said the Psychologist, and reassured us.
“That’s a simple point of psychology. I should have thought of
it. It’s plain enough, and helps the paradox delightfully. We cannot
see it, nor can we appreciate this machine, any more than we can the spoke
of a wheel spinning, or a bullet flying through the air. If it is
travelling through time fifty times or a hundred times faster than we are,
if it gets through a minute while we get through a second, the impression
it creates will of course be only one-fiftieth or one-hundredth of what it
would make if it were not travelling in time. That’s plain
enough.” He passed his hand through the space in which the machine
had been. “You see?” he said, laughing.
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We sat and stared at the vacant table for a minute or so. Then the Time
Traveller asked us what we thought of it all.
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“It sounds plausible enough tonight,” said the Medical Man;
“but wait until tomorrow. Wait for the common sense of the
morning.”
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“Would you like to see the Time Machine itself?” asked the
Time Traveller. And therewith, taking the lamp in his hand, he led the way
down the long, draughty corridor to his laboratory. I remember vividly the
flickering light, his queer, broad head in silhouette, the dance of the
shadows, how we all followed him, puzzled but incredulous, and how there in
the laboratory we beheld a larger edition of the little mechanism which we
had seen vanish from before our eyes. Parts were of nickel, parts of ivory,
parts had certainly been filed or sawn out of rock crystal. The thing was
generally complete, but the twisted crystalline bars lay unfinished upon
the bench beside some sheets of drawings, and I took one up for a better
look at it. Quartz it seemed to be.
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“Look here,” said the Medical Man, “are you perfectly
serious? Or is this a trick—like that ghost you showed us last
Christmas?”
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“Upon that machine,” said the Time Traveller, holding the
lamp aloft, “I intend to explore time. Is that plain? I was never
more serious in my life.”
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III The Time Traveller Returns
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I think that at that time none of us quite believed in the Time Machine.
The fact is, the Time Traveller was one of those men who are too clever to
be believed: you never felt that you saw all round him; you always
suspected some subtle reserve, some ingenuity in ambush, behind his lucid
frankness. Had Filby shown the model and explained the matter in the Time
Traveller’s words, we should have shown him far less
scepticism. For we should have perceived his motives: a pork-butcher could
understand Filby. But the Time Traveller had more than a touch of whim
among his elements, and we distrusted him. Things that would have made the
fame of a less clever man seemed tricks in his hands. It is a mistake to
do things too easily. The serious people who took him seriously never felt
quite sure of his deportment; they were somehow aware that trusting their
reputations for judgment with him was like furnishing a nursery with
eggshell china. So I don’t think any of us said very much about time
travelling in the interval between that Thursday and the next, though its
odd potentialities ran, no doubt, in most of our minds: its plausibility,
that is, its practical incredibleness, the curious possibilities of
anachronism and of utter confusion it suggested. For my own part, I was
particularly preoccupied with the trick of the model. That I remember
discussing with the Medical Man, whom I met on Friday at the Linnæan. He
said he had seen a similar thing at Tübingen, and laid considerable stress
on the blowing-out of the candle. But how the trick was done he could not
explain.
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The next Thursday I went again to Richmond—I suppose I was one of
the Time Traveller’s most constant guests—and, arriving late,
found four or five men already assembled in his drawing-room. The Medical
Man was standing before the fire with a sheet of paper in one hand and his
watch in the other. I looked round for the Time Traveller,
and—“It’s half-past seven now,” said the Medical
Man. “I suppose we’d better have dinner?”
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“You’ve just come? It’s rather odd. He’s
unavoidably detained. He asks me in this note to lead off with dinner at
seven if he’s not back. Says he’ll explain when he
comes.”
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“It seems a pity to let the dinner spoil,” said the Editor
of a well-known daily paper; and thereupon the Doctor rang the bell.
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The Psychologist was the only person besides the Doctor and myself who
had attended the previous dinner. The other men were Blank, the Editor
aforementioned, a certain journalist, and another—a quiet, shy man
with a beard—whom I didn’t know, and who, as far as my
observation went, never opened his mouth all the evening. There was some
speculation at the dinner-table about the Time Traveller’s absence,
and I suggested time travelling, in a half-jocular spirit. The Editor
wanted that explained to him, and the Psychologist volunteered a wooden
account of the “ingenious paradox and trick” we had witnessed
that day week. He was in the midst of his exposition when the door from the
corridor opened slowly and without noise. I was facing the door, and saw it
first. “Hallo!” I said. “At last!” And the door
opened wider, and the Time Traveller stood before us. I gave a cry of
surprise. “Good heavens! man, what’s the matter?” cried
the Medical Man, who saw him next. And the whole tableful turned towards
the door.
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He was in an amazing plight. His coat was dusty and dirty, and smeared
with green down the sleeves; his hair disordered, and as it seemed to me
greyer—either with dust and dirt or because its colour had actually
faded. His face was ghastly pale; his chin had a brown cut on it—a
cut half-healed; his expression was haggard and drawn, as by intense
suffering. For a moment he hesitated in the doorway, as if he had been
dazzled by the light. Then he came into the room. He walked with just such
a limp as I have seen in footsore tramps. We stared at him in silence,
expecting him to speak.
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He said not a word, but came painfully to the table, and made a motion
towards the wine. The Editor filled a glass of champagne, and pushed it
towards him. He drained it, and it seemed to do him good: for he looked
round the table, and the ghost of his old smile flickered across his face.
“What on earth have you been up to, man?” said the Doctor. The
Time Traveller did not seem to hear. “Don’t let me disturb
you,” he said, with a certain faltering articulation.
“I’m all right.” He stopped, held out his glass for more,
and took it off at a draught. “That’s good,” he said. His
eyes grew brighter, and a faint colour came into his cheeks. His glance
flickered over our faces with a certain dull approval, and then went round
the warm and comfortable room. Then he spoke again, still as it were
feeling his way among his words. “I’m going to wash and dress,
and then I’ll come down and explain things.... Save me some of that
mutton. I’m starving for a bit of meat.”
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