Philip Van Doren Stern (ed) (16 page)

"And
then,
looking
more
nearly
into
their
features,
I
saw
some further
peculiarities
in
their
Dresden-china
type
of
prettiness.
Their hair,
which
was
uniformly
curly,
came
to
a
sharp
end
at
the
neck
and cheek;
there
was
not
the
faintest
suggestion
of
it
on
the
face,
and their
ears
were
singularly
minute.
The
mouths
were
small,
with
bright red,
rather
thin
lips,
and
the
little
chins
ran
to
a
point.
The
eyes
were large
and
mild;
and—this
may
seem
egotism
on
my
part—I
fancied even
then
that
there
was
a
certain
lack
of
the
interest
I
might
have expected
in
them.

"As
they
made
no
effort
to
communicate
with
me,
but
simply
stood round
me
smiling
and
speaking
in
soft
cooing
notes
to
each
other,
I began
the
conversation.
I
pointed
to
the
Time
Machine
and
to
myself.
Then
hesitating
for
a
moment
how
to
express
time,
I
pointed to
the
sun.
At
once
a
quaintly
pretty
little
figure
in
chequered
purple and
white
followed
my
gesture,
and
then
astonished
me
by
imitating the
sound
of
thunder.

"For
a
moment
I
was
staggered,
though
the
import
of
his
gesture was
plain
enough.
The
question
had
come
into
my
mind
abruptly: were
these
creatures
fools?
You
may
hardly
understand
how
it
took me.
You
see
I
had
always
anticipated
that
the
people
of
the
year Fight
Hundred
and
Two
Thousand
odd
would
be
incredibly
in
front
of
us
in
knowledge,
art,
everything.
Then
one
of
them
suddenly
asked me
a
question
that
showed
him
to
be
on
the
intellectual
level
of
one
of
our
five-year-old
children—asked
me,
in
fact,
if
I
had
come
from the
sun
in
a
thunderstorm!
It
let
loose
the
judgment
I
had
suspended upon
their
clothes,
their
frail
light
limbs,
and
fragile
features.
A
flow
of
disappointment
rushed
across
my
mind.
For
a
moment
I
felt
that
1
had
built
the
Time
Machine
in
vain.

"I
nodded,
pointed
to
the
sun,
and
gave
them
such
a
vivid
rendering
of
a
thunderclap
as
startled
them.
They
all
withdrew
a
pace
or
so and
bowed.
Then
came
one
laughing
towards
me,
carrying
a
chain
of
beautiful
flowers
altogether
new
to
me,
and
put
it
about
my
neck.

The
idea
was
received
with
melodious
applause;
and
presently
they were
all
running
to
and
fro
for
flowers,
and
laughingly
flinging
them upon
me
until
I
was
almost
smothered
with
blossom.
You
who
have never
seen
the
like
can
scarcely
imagine
what
delicate
and
wonderful flowers
countless
years
of
culture
had
created.
Then
someone
suggested
that
their
plaything
should
be
exhibited
in
the
nearest
building,
and
so
I
was
led
past
the
sphinx
of
white
marble,
which
had seemed
to
watch
me
all
the
while
with
a
smile
at
my
astonishment, towards
a
vast
grey
edifice
of
fretted
stone.
As
I
went
with
them
the memory
of
my
confident
anticipations
of
a
profoundly
grave
and
intellectual
posterity
came,
with
irresistible
merriment,
to
my
mind.