"Excuse me, Mr. Filby!" "I say..." " l say, it's outright rude of the man!" " He's merely being detained, that's all." "This is such a confounded waste of time!" "If he's not coming, I have any number of more important things to do." "Well, speak up." "What is it, woman?" "Well, are we or are we not invited for dinner?" "Apparently, we are." " How long has he been gone?" " Well, I can't rightly say, sir." "Several days." "I've hardly seen him for some time." "And he never leaves the laboratory." "He only comes in and picks at his food." "But he did tell me about dinner tonight, sir, and left those instructions." "Thank you, Mrs. Watchett." " Well, what does it say, Filby?" "What's wrong?" " Oh, nothing, really." "George merely says that if he's not here by 8 o'clock, then we're to begin without him." "Walter, what time is it?" "Dinner is served, gentlemen." "First sensible thing I've heard all evening." "This is peculiar." "He's usually most prompt, precise and punctual." "He's making fools of us by inviting us here and then not showing up. lt's not the behaviour of a gentleman." " To say nothing of a waste of time." " Yes." "To say nothing of a waste of time." "It's one thing I like about our George:" "he's got the best cellar in the southern England." "And Mrs. Watchett is the finest cook in the world." "Yes, I think I'll drink to that." " Good Lord!" "What's happened?" " l'm all right." "Some food." "A drink." " l didn't recognize you." " Mrs. Watchett." "Well, can't you speak, man?" "What happened to you?" " Leave him alone, can't yo?" "." " lt's all right." " l've got to tell it now, David, while I still remember it." " Relax." "Try to relax." "You've all the time in the world." "You're right, David." "That's exactly what I have." "All the time in the world." "Ever since we were together five days ago,.." "....the last day of 1 899." "There in that box rests the result of two years' labor." "I wanted to finish the job before the new century began." "I barely made it." " Cheers, gentlemen." " Marvelous, old boy." "Yes, but what is it?" "Well, it has to do with time." "Oh, I've always maintained that what this nation needs is a reliable timepiece." "The navy needs one." "The army needs one for the artillery, you know." "You couldn't do better, George." "So that's why you've been in hiding, huh?" "That's very clever of you, indeed." "I don't think George is referring to a new type of timepiece." "No, David." "When I speak of time, gentlemen, I'm referring to the fourth dimension." "Go on, George." "Well, the difficulty in explaining the fourth dimension is that it cannot be seen or felt." "If you don't mind, George, would you refresh me on the first three dimensions?" "Really, Filby." "Surely they taught you something at school." "Suppose you explain it, doctor." "Certainly." "For example, when I move in a straight line, forward or backward.... ...that's one dimension." "And when I move to the left or right - two dimensions." "And when I move up or down -.." "...three dimensions." "For instance, that box." "Well, that box has three dimensions:" "length, breadth and height." "Yes, but what is the fourth dimension?" "That's mere theory." "No one really knows what the fourth dimension is or even that it exists." "On the contrary, Doctor." "The fourth dimension is as real and true a dimension as any of the other three." "In fact, they couldn't exist without it." "What do you mean?" "Let's take that box." "It has the first three dimensions, as you said." " All right." "But what's in that box?" " l'm coming to that." "Let's consider this first." "Why is it that we usually ignore the fourth dimension?" "Because we have no freedom of movement within it." "You see, we can move in the other three:" "up, down, forward, sideways, backward, as the Doctor said." "But when it comes to time, we are prisoners." "Do you follow me, Bridey?" "No." "George, you've given the most lucid explanation of all, but I'm afraid I don't quite understand." "Walter, look, there are many things in this world you don't understand, aren't there?" "Yes, quite... quite a number." "Well, you don't refuse to believe in them because of that, do you?" " No, not if I can see the proof with my own eyes." " Good, Walter." "Gentlemen, all I'm asking you to do now is to witness a demonstration of the possibility of movement within the fourth dimension." " Doctor, can I have your help?" " Oh, certainly, certainly." "It's beautiful!" " It's remarkable." " Very nice, George." "Fascinating." "What is it?" "This is only a small experimental model, of course." " To carry a man, a larger edition is needed." " To carry a man?" "Where?" "into the past or into the future." "This is a time machine." "All right, George, now you've had your little joke." "Suppose you tell us what this contraption's really for." "I've already told you, Doctor." "The larger model can be used to carry a passenger on a journey through time." "Not through space, mind you, but through time." "I say, George, if you're gonna start floating about in the future, how'd you gonna rather mess things up for the rest of us?" "Well, the future's already there." "It's irrevocable and cannot be changed." "I wonder." "Now, that's the most important question to which I hope to find an answer." "Can man control his destiny?" "Can he change the shape of things to come?" "Now, look here, George, if you've gone out of your head, I forgive you." " But if you've made us waste all this time,.." " No, Doctor!" "You're here as witnesses." " To see, not to listen." " To see?" "What?" "The experiment I am about to perform." "First, let me tell you how it works." "Here, in this compartment, you see the saddle, where the time traveller sits." "And in front of him are the controls." "Let's do this properly." "You can spare a cigar, I trust, Doctor?" "Now, let us imagine that this cigar .is the time traveller." "Now, in front of him is the lever, which controls movement." "Forward pressure sends the machine into the future,.." "...backward pressure - into the past." "And the harder the pressure, the faster the machine travels." "Of course, our little experiment can be performed only once." "If it succeeds, I lose my model forever." "That's why I need witnesses." "Go ahead, George." "All ready, gentlemen?" "Doctor, would you here lend me your hand?" "I'll be damned!" "It worked." " But where did it go?" " Go?" "Nowhere, in the usual sense." "It's still here." "But it's no longer in the present." "Do you realise?" "It's travelling through time." "To the future, to be exact." "Do you really expect us to believe such a story?" "Well, you've just..." "Certainly." " But you yourself just said that it hadn't really moved." " That's correct." "Well, then why can't we see it?" "Because we're in this room on the 31st of December, 1899 but the model we just saw is perhaps a hundred years away by now." "This room, even this whole house may not be here in a hundred years." "But the time machine occupies the same space that it did a moment before it went off on its journey." "Well, if it's occupying the same space, why can't I feel it?" "You must remember that the space you're putting your hand through is today's space." "You can't put your hand into the space of tomorrow." "Space doesn't change!" "The same space that's here now should be here in a hundred or even a thousand years from now." "No, Philip, time changes space!" "Look, this flat ground we're stading on could've been at the bottom of the sea a million years ago." "And a million years from now, it could be the interior of a huge mountain." "All right, suppose, what you say is true, what do you expect to do with such a contraption?" "Contraption?" "For my part, I intend taking a journey into the future." "Well, perhaps the doctor would volunteer to go?" "Well, look here, George suppose you do and go off and get lost in the 50th century or something." " How you're gonna get back?" " That's a risk I'm prepared to take." "Now, look here, George." "I don't know what you think us for, but we're not fools, you know!" "We're practical men, businessmen." "No, now, the question I want to put you is this:" "Even if you had invented a time machine, or what have you called it, what of it?" "What use would it be to anyone?" "Who would want to buy it?" "And how much would they be willing to pay for it?" "Yes, George, have you thought of the commercial possibilities?" "No, I really haven't." "George...!" "There's a war on, you know, in South Africa." "The Boers are putting up a pretty stiff fight." "Now, George, the country needs inventors like you." "I can put you in touch with the War Office if you wish." "What do you think, David?" "Oh, I think Dr. Hillyer has a good point, George." "Now, we're becoming more sensible." "I'll see to it first thing in the new year." "Good Lord!" "It's time to go, gentlemen." "Yes, I'm sure we all have our plans for tonight." " Are you all right, George?" " Yes, I'm all right, Bridey." "Coming, Bridewell?" "Thank you for coming." " Good night, George." " Happy New Year, George." " Happy new century, George." " Good night, Bridey." "Happy New Year!" "I thought I'd better stay." "Well, You shouldn't have troubled yourself, David." "I'm all right." "No, you're not." "You've been behaving oddly for over a month now." "I'm not leaving here until you tell me what's on your mind." "Look, David, I appreciate the gesture, but I just wanna be left alone, that's all." "You've changed, George." "Enormously." "I'm sorry." "Will you answer me one question, honestly?" "Yes, I'll try." "Why this preoccupation with time?" "Why not?" "Don't go simple on me, George." "All right, if you want to know the truth, I don't much care for the time I was born into." "It seems people aren't dying fast enough these days." "They call upon science to invent new, more efficient weapons to depopulate the Earth." "And I agree with you." "I agree, George." "But here we are and we have to make the best of it." "You may have to. I don't." "All right." "Take your journey on your contraption." "Who would you become?" "A Greek?" "A Roman?" " One of the pharaohs?" " l prefer the future." "You're not seriously saying you can do it?" "David, you saw the experiment this afternoon, didn't you?" "I saw a toy machine vanish." "I'm certain that there are any number of ways of doing that trick." "Any magician with a hippodrome could probably do it." "It wasn't a trick!" " Would you like to see the full-scale model?" " No, I would not." "I have no desire to tempt the laws of Providence." "And I don't think you should." " lt's not for man to trifle with." " You carry on like Hillyer and Kemp now." "There is something to say about their common-sense attitude to life." "George, I speak to you as a friend." "More." "As a brother." "If that machine can do what you say it can, destroy it." "Destroy it, George, before it destroys you!" "You must have plans for New Year's Eve, David." "Don't let me keep you." "Mary wasn't well." "We thought we'd stay home with the baby." "Why don't you come home with me?" "You haven't seen wee Jamey for a long time." "I'm sorry, I can't, David." "What's stopping you?" "Well..." "Look, I just want to see the old century out by myself, that's all." "Have it your way, George." "George, will you promise you'll not go out of the house tonight?" "I promise you I won't walk out the door." "Davy, I'm sorry." "Please don't think me unkind or unfriendly, I..." " Look, just come over to dinner next Friday, will you." " Very well." " Fine." "Bring the others with you." " As you say, George." " Happy New Year." " Happy New Year, David." " Having supper in tonight, sir?" " l don't think so, Mrs. Watchett." "Why don't you take the evening off and celebrate?" "Well, thank you, sir, but if you're not need in me, I think I'll turn in earlier and get some sleep,.. if I can." " Good night, sir." " Good night." "Oh, Mrs. Watchett, I've invited Mr. Filby and the others to dinner next Friday night." "Oh, yes, sir." " Happy New Year, Mrs. Watchett." " Happy New Year, sir." "At first, I pushed the lever forward ever so slightly and the laboratory grew faint around me." "I stopped." "No change." "Everything exactly as it had been before." "But no!" "The clock said 6:31 when I started, and now it was... 8:09?" "And the candle, shorter by inches!" "And yet by my watch, which was in the machine with me, only a few seconds had passed." "It was disconcerting to see the sun arc in less than a minute." "To see a snail race by." "My flowers flinging wide their petals to embrace the new day." "And the hours speeding across the face of my sundial." "And the flowers closing their eyes for the night." "It was wonderful!" "Changes that normally took hours occuring in seconds." "Dear Mrs. Watchett always able to tell me what tie to wear but never able to decide to wear anything more stylish  than the type of clothes she's worn all these years." "And as yet I was traveling very slowly." "What if I went faster?" "It became intoxicating." "So I pushed the lever on toward even greater speed." "As I went along I gained experience in handling the machine." "I found that I could stop for a day, an hour, or even for a second to observe." "Then go ahead a year or two." "Thus, I was able to see the changing world in a series of glimpses." "Good heavens." "That's a dress?" "This was intriguing." "I wonderedjust how far women would permit this to go." "I began to grow very fond of that mannequin." "Maybe because, like me, she didn't age." "Thirteen years have passed." "Fourteen, fifteen, sixteen... and then suddenly the light was gone." "What had happened?" "In the year of 1917, I stopped." "Filby!" "Well, what are you doing?" "Are you in a masquerade party?" "You look rather silly without your mustache, old man." " Were you addressing me, sir?" " Filby, it's George!" "Well, I must say I expected a little more enthusiastic a greeting..." "I think you're confusing me with my father, sir." "Yes, there was quite a resemblance." "I'm James Filby." ""Was"?" " Were you a friend of Father's?" " Yes." "Yes, I've been away." "He was killed in the war." "A year ago." "Oh, I'm so sorry." " What about the gentleman across the street?" " Oh, him, the inventor chap?" "He disappeared around the turn of the century." "Look, here, if you're interested in that house, sir, I'm afraid you can't buy it." " Can't even get inside." " Why is that?" "Well, my father was executor of the inventor's estate and father just refused to liquidate it." "I often chided him on that account but he felt positive the owner would return some day." "People hereabouts think it's haunted, but..." "Who are you, sir?" "Just a stranger who once knew your father." "Have you been at the front?" "Front?" "What front?" "What the... the war, of course." "What war?" "Good heavens!" "You mean you don't know we've been at war with Germany since 1914?" "I thought you'd just returned from France perhaps." "Or perhaps perhaps a cup of tea might make you feel better, sir?" "Won't you come in?" "No, no, thank you." "Are you sure you're all right, sir?" "Yes, I'm quite all right." "Then goodbye, sir." "Goodbye, Jamey." "Suddenly, in 1940, I began to be buffeted from side to side." "My first thought was that the machine had a mechanical defect or if a quark had worn out." "The last time I had stopped was in 1917, 23 years ago." "And the war with Germany was still waging." "Now in the air with flying machines." "Then I realized the truth of the matter." "This was a new war." "I decided to push on into time and see the outcome of this." "Then my house was hit!" "The flames shot up into the sky." "And my home was gone in an instant." "And I found myself in the open air." "The years rolled by, everything unfamiliar." "Except the smile of my never-aging friend." "But what was this?" "Weird sounds all around me." "What could it be?" "My curiosity compelled me to stop." "At first, I wondered if my machine I was the cause of the panic." "Well, I was soon to find out that we weren't." "Keep it moving here!" "Shove it on!" "Come on, into the shelter." "Come on, young man!" "Come on!" "Come on!" " Filby?" " The name is Mr. Filby." " And didn't you hear the air raid siren?" " You mean the horrible screeching?" "It wasn't constructed for its aesthetic value, young man but to warn silly young fools like you to get into the shelter." " Now, come along, come along." " But I'm perfectly comfortable here, Mr. Filby." "I've got to talk to somebody." "This is fantastic!" "Your store is magnificent!" "The achievements!" " The gigantic strides that man kinded!" " Come along, young man!" "Come along!" "Come along!" "You better hurry or the mushrooms will be sprouting!" "Mushrooms?" "You look familiar." "Haven't we met somewhere before?" "Indeed we have, Mr. Filby." "Right there." "Many years ago." "I was sure of that." "But the exact time escapes me." "It was two wars ago. 1917." "Now I recall." "The chap who inquired about my father and the house that used to stand across the way." "But no..." "No, that's impossible!" "You haven't changed." "You're not a day older." "And your clothes!" "Don't worry, Filby." "It'll take a little time to explain, but..." "That's the last alert!" "Hurry!" "Hurry!" " Listen, this is important." " Look!" "An atomic satellite, zeroing in." "That's important." " But I've got to talk to you!" " Come on!" "Hurry!" "Till the all clear!" "But, Filby, I've got to talk to you!" "The labor of centuries, gone in an instant." "And then mother Earth, aroused by man 's violence responded with volcanic violence of her own." "Only my speed through time saved me from being roasted alive and encased in stone forever." "The molten rock cooled." "I prayed wondering how many centuries, how many eons must pass before the wind and rain could wear away the mountain that enclosed me." "Darkness." "Darkness for centuries." "I wondered if there was still a war being waged on the ground above me if man would still exist on Earth when I saw the sun again." "The centuries rolled by." "I put my trust in time and waited for the rock to wear down around me." "I was free again!" "Thousands of centuries had passed but the Earth had stayed green." "There was no winter, no wars." "Had man finally learned to control both the elements and himself?" "I had to stop and find out." "But I'd stopped too fast." "Magnificent!" "Flowers." "Beautiful flowers everywhere!" "Natural splendor beyond compare." "The whole landscape - one vast garden without any sign of weeds or briars." "Trees and vines laden with fruit of strange shapes and colors." "Nature tamed completely and more bountiful than ever before!" "At last I'd found a paradise." "But it would be no paradise if it'd belong to me alone." "Unrepaired for centuries." "Maybe unlived-in for as long." "Anybody here?" "So this is man 's future: to bask in the sunlight, bathe in the clear streams and eat the fruits of the Earth, with all knowledge of work and hardship forgotten." "Well, and why not?" "Don't just sit there!" "Help her!" "Are you all right?" "Thank you." " Why did you?" " Why did I what?" "Come after me." "Sit down." "I did it to save your life." "That doesn't seem to mean much to you, or anybody else around here." "It doesn't." "Do you realize that there were about twenty of your friends watching you drown." "Not one of them so much as lifted a finger to save you." "That's a very curious attitude." "Very curious world." "Aren't you the least bit interested in who I am?" "Where I come from?" "Should I be?" "I think, perhaps, you better take me to somebody a little older." "Somebody I can talk to." "There is no one older." "Do you mean nobody ages in this land of yours?" " Well, what's your name?" " Weena." "How do you spell it?" " Spell?" " Spell, write." "Can't you write?" "Look." " What are your people called?" " Eloi." "Come." "We must go now." " Why, what's wrong?" " lt's getting dark." "Hello." "I don't mind telling you, I'm quite hungry." "And I've come a long, long way." "You know, in my time, a berry that size would've been big news all over the civilized world." "Excuse me, sir?" "Sir?" "Perhaps curiosity is died." "Perhaps even courtesy is died, but I have come a long way and I would like to know a few things." "Why?" "Well, because I shall return to my time, and my people will ask me questions." "Such as:" "Well, what kind of government rules your world?" "We have no government." "Well, you must have a body of men who pass and enforce laws." "Laws?" "There are no laws." "Where do you get food and clothing?" "Doesn't anybody work?" "No." "Well, where does all that come from?" " lt grows. lt always grows." " Yes, I know, but it must be cultivated and planted and nurtured..." "Well, unless you well, you may have an economy so well-developed that you can spend all your time studying and experimenting?" "is that right?" "You ask many questions." "Well, that is the only way that man has learned and developed." "I wish to learn." "I want to learn about you, about your civilization." "Perhaps you..." "Do you have books?" "Books?" " Yes, we have books." " Ah, wonderful!" "I can learn all I want about you from books." "Books will tell me what I want to know." "Could I see the books?" "Yes, they do tell me all about you." "What have you done?" "Thousands of years of building and rebuilding, creating and re-creating so you can let it all crumble to dust!" "A million years of sensitive men dying for their dreams." "For what?" "!" "So you can swim and dance and play!" "You!" "All of you!" "I'm going back to my own time!" "I won't again bother to tell of the useless struggle the hopeless future." "But at least I could die among men!" " Weena, what are you doing?" " I hear you pounding. I came to warn you." " Weena, how do you open that panel?" " No one opens it." "Only the Morlocks." "The Morlocks?" "But who are the Morlocks?" "They give us the food we eat and the clothes we wear." "We must obey their command." "Why'd they taken my machine?" "Weena, you've got to tell me!" "But... it is night." "We mustn't be out in the dark." "Only little children are frightened by the dark." "And you are a little child, aren't you?" " Well, don't be frightened, I'll light a fire." " Please, let us go." "Weena, I can't." "My machine is inside there." "I've got to wait here until morning and find some way of getting it out." " No, you mustn't." " Come on." "Help me gather some wood." "That's a girl." "Where are you from?" "As a matter of fact, I'm from right here." "That's where my house used to be many thousands of years ago." "You see there?" "From there up to those panels was my laboratory." "Then beyond the panels was where my garden used to be." "Right there." "That was my library." "Where I once sat talking with friends about the time machine." "You know, Weena,.." "...I'd hoped to learn such a great deal." "I'd hoped to take back the knowledge and the advancement that mankind had made." "And instead, I find vegetables." "The human race reduced to living vegetables." "They're gone." "Are you all right?" " That was a Morlock, was it?" " Yes." "Oh, don't you worry." "The fire seems to keep them away." "What are you doing?" "Why did you put your hand in the fire?" "I never saw it before." "No knowledge of fire?" "No books?" "No... I'm terribly sorry." "I'm sorry I was angry with your people." "I had no right to be." "No more than if I'd visited the island of Bali in my own time." "But, you know, Weena..." "You were safe inside your great house, and yet you came out into the night to warn me." "The one characteristic which distinguished man from the animal kingdom was the spirit of self-sacrifice." "And you have that quality." "I think all your people have it really." "It just needs someone to reawaken it." "I should like to try, if you let me." "Will you?" "I do not understand you but I believe you." "That's as good a start as any." "Try to tell me." "The Morlocks - who or what are the Morlocks?" "Are they animals or people?" "Well, what about yourself?" "The past." "Don't your people ever speak of the past?" "There is no past." "Well, do they ever wonder about the future?" "There is no future." "Well, the past,.." "...man's past,.." "...is mainly a grim struggle for survival." "But there have been moments when a few voices have spoken up and these rare moments have made the history of man - man's past -.." "...a glorious thing." "I refuse to believe it's dead and gone." "We've had our dark ages before." "And this is just another one of them." "All it needs is for someone to show you the way out." "I'm only a tinkering mechanic, but I'm sure there must be this hidden spark in one of your people." "If only I can kindle that spark my coming here will have some meaning." "My efforts next morning to open the panel were fruitless." "I had to find another way to retrieve my machine." "Listen." "Weenie, you hear that?" "Yes." "Machines?" " No, Morlocks." " Wait." "You mean those animals run machines?" "They are Morlocks." " But, have you ever seen the machines?" " No, only heard of them." " But, who told you?" " The rings." " What sort of rings?" " Rings that talk." "Could you show me these talking rings?" "Come, this way." " These are the talking rings?" " Yes." "They speak?" "Of what?" "Things no one here understands." "Make it talk." "The war between the East and West, which is now in its 326th year,.." "...has at last come to an end." "There is nothing left to fight with and few of us left to fight." "The atmosphere has become so polluted with deadly germs that it can no longer be breathed." "There is no place on this planet that is immune." "The last surviving factory for the manufacture of oxygen has been destroyed." "Stockpiles are rapidly diminishing and when they are gone, we must die." "My name is of no consequence." "The important thing you should know is that I am the last who remembers how each of us man and woman, made his own decision." "Some chose to take refuge in the great caverns and find a new way of life far below the Earth's surface." "The rest of us decided to take our chances in the sunlight small as those chances might be." "From the talking rings I learned how the human race divided itself and how the world of the Eloi and the Morlocks began." "By some awful quirk of fate the Morlocks had became the masters and the Eloi - their servants." "The Morlocks maintained them and bred them like like cattle only to take them below when they reached maturity." "Which explained why there were no older people among them." "Now I knew I must go below." "It was the only mean to finding a way up into the Spfinx to reach my machine and find out what happened to the little people when they did go below." "Don't go!" " You won't come back!" " l'll be back." "Weena?" "Weena, answer me!" "Where are you?" "What's happening?" "What's happening?" "What's the matter with you all?" "Weena, stop!" "Stop!" "Well, what happens to them?" "Don't stand there like fatted cattle!" "Will you answer me?" " What is wrong?" " There is nothing wrong. lt is all clear." " What do you mean, all clear?" " All clear." "In the middle-1900s, the falling bombs, the people calling out, "All clear!"." "No!" "That's gone!" "That's passed!" "There are no more flying machines!" "No more bombs!" "No more wars!" "The rings have told us that story." "But you didn't listen!" "You didn't learn anything!" "It was ages ago that men were taught to hide below the ground when the sirens blew to run from the reigning death, but it's over!" "Those men are dead." "The men who slaughtered them are dead!" "But there is nothing to fear." "It is all clear." "What about the ones who went below?" "How do you think they gonna come back?" "They never come back." " Nobody can bring them back." " You can try." "You can try!" "Won't even one of you try?" "!" "Well, I'll try!" "So this was the destiny of the Eloi." "They were being bred by the Morlocks  who had degenerated into the lowest form of human life:" "Cannibalism!" "Weena, wake up!" "Come to your senses!" "All of you!" "Burn." "Give me something to burn." "It's my last match." "Get up the stairs!" "That's the way out!" "Quickly!" "The torch!" "Weenie, get the torch!" "Get up the steps!" "Hurry up!" "All right, get all the deadwood!" "Come on!" "All the wood!" "That's fine." "Come on, throw it down!" "All the deadwood!" "Throw it down!" "Do the same to the other wells!" "All the wood down the wells!" "All right, to the river!" "Come on!" "Back to the river!" "All right, let's go!" "Another night was coming, but this night no Eloi needed to fear." "The underworld of the Morlocks was gone and so was the life of leisure for the Eloi." "But then what of me?" "I was imprisoned in a world in which I just did not belong." "Are you sorry?" " Sorry?" "Sorry for what?" " That you have to stay?" "Yes." "I'm sorry because I could tell so much to the people of my time, Weena." "I could let them know about the sorrow and the happiness that the future has installed for them." "Maybe they could learn from it." "Or could they?" " You don't want to stay, do you?" " lt isn't that." "It's just that I don't really fit here any more than you would in my time." "I would love to see your time." "You wouldn't be very happy there." "Do you have someone there?" "Someone like me?" "No, no one like you." "I have friends, of course, friends who'll miss me." "As a matter of fact, I'm probably late already." "Women?" "No." "As a matter of fact, there is one woman." "But she looks after my house for me." "And she's 62 years old and all wrinkled." "How do they wear their hair?" " Who?" " The women of your time." " Up." " Up?" "Up how?" "I don't know." "Kind of up, like that." "Show me!" "Would I be pretty?" "Yes, you would." "Very pretty." "Oh, Weena, I wish we could go back to my time." "Or even into time before that, when the world was young." " We could be so very happy." " Look!" "My machine!" "Come on, Weena!" "I was going the wrong way!" "Back!" "I had to go back!" "Well, lt's the most ridiculous story I've ever heard." "Absolutely preposterous!" "Well, there's one thing I'll say for you, George, you always could tell a good yarn." "You're a truly great inventor, George." "I think you ought to retire, sir." "Truthfully, George, where have you been the past week?" "You shouldn't ask such questions." "It's not hard for a man to lose a little week now and again." "I can understand your doubt, my friends." "Take it as a lie if you wish." "I scarcely believe it myself, now that I'm back." "David, there's the flower Weena gave me." "A present for you." "You were always interested in botany." "Try and match that with any species known today!" "I don't think I can." "Well, time to go, Bridewell." " Yes, it is getting late." " Good night, George." "Good night, George." "You look exhausted, George." "You really should get some rest." "Good night, George." "It's grand having you back." "Goodbye, David." "Thanks for being such a good friend, David." "Always." "What do you think, Filby?" "One thing is certain." "That flower couldn't possibly have bloomed in the wintertime." "You don't really believe that story is true, do you?" "Good night." "Go on, driver." " Mr. Filby, what..?" " He's gone!" "Why, look!" "I think I understand." "You see the imprint?" "This is where the time machine originally stood." "But the Morlocks moved it." "They dragged it across the lawn right into the Sphinx." "Right there." "And Weena was standing here when he last saw her." "Right here!" "The same space in a different time." "So he dragged his heavy machine back in here scratching the floor so that he could appear outside the sphinx again and help the Eloi build a new world." "Build a new world for himself." " Right where he left her." " Yes." "It's not like George to return empty-handed." "To try to rebuild a civilization without a plan." "He must have taken something with him." "Nothing." " Except three books." " Which three books?" "I don't know. ls it important?" "I suppose not." "Only which three books would you have taken?" "Mr. Filby, do you think he'll ever return?" "One cannot choose but wonder." "You see, he has all the time in the world."