blowing-out of the candle. But how the trick was done he could not
explain.
The next Thursday I went again to Richmond I suppose I was one of the
Time Traveller s most constant guests and, arriving late, found four or
five men already assembled in his drawing-room. The Medical Man was
standing before the fire with a sheet of paper in one hand and his
watch in the other. I looked round for the Time Traveller, and It s
half-past seven now, said the Medical Man. I suppose we d better have
dinner?
Where s ? said I, naming our host.
You ve just come? It s rather odd. He s unavoidably detained. He asks
me in this note to lead off with dinner at seven if he s not back. Says
he ll explain when he comes.
It seems a pity to let the dinner spoil, said the Editor of a
well-known daily paper; and thereupon the Doctor rang the bell.
The Psychologist was the only person besides the Doctor and myself who
had attended the previous dinner. The other men were Blank, the Editor
aforementioned, a certain journalist, and another a quiet, shy man with
a beard whom I didn t know, and who, as far as my observation went,
never opened his mouth all the evening. There was some speculation at
the dinner-table about the Time Traveller s absence, and I suggested
time travelling, in a half-jocular spirit. The Editor wanted that
explained to him, and the Psychologist volunteered a wooden account of
the ingenious paradox and trick we had witnessed that day week. He
was in the midst of his exposition when the door from the corridor
opened slowly and without noise. I was facing the door, and saw it
first. Hallo! I said. At last! And the door opened wider, and the
Time Traveller stood before us. I gave a cry of surprise. Good
heavens! man, what s the matter? cried the Medical Man, who saw him
next. And the whole tableful turned towards the door.
He was in an amazing plight. His coat was dusty and dirty, and smeared
with green down the sleeves; his hair disordered, and as it seemed to
me greyer either with dust and dirt or because its colour had actually
faded. His face was ghastly pale; his chin had a brown cut on it a cut
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