had had a companion it would have been different. But I was so

horribly alone, and even to clamber down into the darkness of the

well appalled me. I don't know if you will understand my feeling,

but I never felt quite safe at my back.

'It was this restlessness, this insecurity, perhaps, that drove me

further and further afield in my exploring expeditions. Going to the

south-westward towards the rising country that is now called Combe

Wood, I observed far off, in the direction of nineteenth-century

Banstead, a vast green structure, different in character from any

I had hitherto seen. It was larger than the largest of the palaces

or ruins I knew, and the facade had an Oriental look: the face

of it having the lustre, as well as the pale-green tint, a kind

of bluish-green, of a certain type of Chinese porcelain. This

difference in aspect suggested a difference in use, and I was minded

to push on and explore. But the day was growing late, and I had come

upon the sight of the place after a long and tiring circuit; so I

resolved to hold over the adventure for the following day, and I

returned to the welcome and the caresses of little Weena. But next

morning I perceived clearly enough that my curiosity regarding the

Palace of Green Porcelain was a piece of self-deception, to enable

me to shirk, by another day, an experience I dreaded. I resolved I

would make the descent without further waste of time, and started

out in the early morning towards a well near the ruins of granite

and aluminium.

The Time Machine