because I should have been glad to trace the patent readjustments by

which the conquest of animated nature had been attained. Then we

came to a gallery of simply colossal proportions, but singularly

ill-lit, the floor of it running downward at a slight angle from the

end at which I entered. At intervals white globes hung from the

ceiling--many of them cracked and smashed--which suggested that

originally the place had been artificially lit. Here I was more in

my element, for rising on either side of me were the huge bulks of

big machines, all greatly corroded and many broken down, but some

still fairly complete. You know I have a certain weakness for

mechanism, and I was inclined to linger among these; the more so as

for the most part they had the interest of puzzles, and I could make

only the vaguest guesses at what they were for. I fancied that if

I could solve their puzzles I should find myself in possession of

powers that might be of use against the Morlocks.

'Suddenly Weena came very close to my side. So suddenly that she

startled me. Had it not been for her I do not think I should have

noticed that the floor of the gallery sloped at all. [Footnote: It

may be, of course, that the floor did not slope, but that the museum

was built into the side of a hill.--ED.] The end I had come in at

was quite above ground, and was lit by rare slit-like windows. As

you went down the length, the ground came up against these windows,

until at last there was a pit like the "area" of a London house

before each, and only a narrow line of daylight at the top. I went

slowly along, puzzling about the machines, and had been too intent

The Time Machine