'It may seem odd to you, but it was two days before I could follow

up the new-found clue in what was manifestly the proper way. I felt

a peculiar shrinking from those pallid bodies. They were just the

half-bleached colour of the worms and things one sees preserved in

spirit in a zoological museum. And they were filthily cold to the

touch. Probably my shrinking was largely due to the sympathetic

influence of the Eloi, whose disgust of the Morlocks I now began

to appreciate.

'The next night I did not sleep well. Probably my health was a

little disordered. I was oppressed with perplexity and doubt. Once

or twice I had a feeling of intense fear for which I could perceive

no definite reason. I remember creeping noiselessly into the great

hall where the little people were sleeping in the moonlight--that

night Weena was among them--and feeling reassured by their presence.

It occurred to me even then, that in the course of a few days the

moon must pass through its last quarter, and the nights grow dark,

when the appearances of these unpleasant creatures from below, these

whitened Lemurs, this new vermin that had replaced the old, might be

more abundant. And on both these days I had the restless feeling of

one who shirks an inevitable duty. I felt assured that the Time

Machine was only to be recovered by boldly penetrating these

underground mysteries. Yet I could not face the mystery. If only I

The Time Machine