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“ Then I heard voices approaching me . Coming through the bushes by the White Sphinx were the heads and shoulders of men running . One of these emerged in a pathway leading straight to the little lawn upon which I stood with my machine . He was a slight creature — perhaps four feet high — clad in a purple tunic , girdled at the waist with a leather belt . Sandals or buskins — I could not clearly distinguish which — were on his feet ; his legs were bare to the knees , and his head was bare . Noticing that , I noticed for the first time how warm the air was . “ He struck me as being a very beautiful and graceful creature , but indescribably frail . His flushed face reminded me of the more beautiful kind of consumptive — that hectic beauty of which we used to hear so much . At the sight of him I suddenly regained confidence . I took my hands from the machine . V . In the Golden Age “ In another moment we were standing face to face , I and this fragile thing out of futurity . He came straight up to me and laughed into my eyes . The absence from his bearing of any sign of fear struck me at once . Then he turned to the two others who were following him and spoke to them in a strange and very sweet and liquid tongue . “ There were others coming , and presently a little group of perhaps eight or ten of these exquisite creatures were about me . One of them addressed me . It came into my head , oddly enough , that my voice was too harsh and deep for them . So I shook my head , and , pointing to my ears , shook it again . He came a step forward , hesitated , and then touched my hand . Then I felt other soft little tentacles upon my back and shoulders . They wanted to make sure I was real . There was nothing in this at all alarming . Indeed , there was something in these pretty little people that inspired confidence — a graceful gentleness , a certain childlike ease . And besides , they looked so frail that I could fancy myself flinging the whole dozen of them about like ninepins . But I made a sudden motion to warn them when I saw their little pink hands feeling at the Time Machine . Happily then , when it was not too late , I thought of a danger I had hitherto forgotten , and reaching over the bars of the machine I unscrewed the little levers that would set it in motion , and put these in my pocket . Then I turned again to see what I could do in the way of communication . “ And then , looking more nearly into their features , I saw some further peculiarities in their Dresden china type of prettiness . Their hair , which was uniformly curly , came to a sharp end at the neck and cheek ; there was not the faintest suggestion of it on the face , and their ears were singularly minute . The mouths were small , with bright red , rather thin lips , and the little chins ran to a point . The eyes were large and mild ; and — this may seem egotism on my part — I fancied even that there was a certain lack of the interest I might have expected in them .
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