Philip Van Doren Stern (ed) (17 page)

"The
building
had
a
huge
entry,
and
was
altogether
of
colossal dimensions.
I
was
naturally
most
occupied
with
the
growing
crowd of
little
people,
and
with
the
big
open
portals
that
yawned
before
me shadowy
and
mysterious.
My
general
impression
of
the
world
I
saw over
their
heads
was
of
a
tangled
waste
of
beautiful
bushes
and flowers,
a
long-neglected
and
yet
weedless
garden.
I
saw
a
number
of tall
spikes
of
strange
white
flowers,
measuring
a
foot
perhaps
across the
spread
of
the
waxen
petals.
They
grew
scattered,
as
if
wild,
among the
variegated
shrubs,
but,
as
I
say,
I
did
not
examine
them
closely
at this
time.
The
Time
Machine
was
left
deserted
on
the
turf
among the
rhododendrons.

"The
arch
of
the
doorway
was
richly
carved,
but
naturally
I
did not
observe
the
carving
very
narrowly,
though
I
fancied
I
saw
suggestions
of
old
Phoenician
decorations
as
I
passed
through,
and
it struck
me
that
they
were
very
badly
broken
and
weather-wom.
Several more
brightly
clad
people
met
me
in
the
doorway,
and
so
we
entered, I,
dressed
in
dingy
nineteenth-century
garments,
looking
grotesque enough,
garlanded
with
flowers,
and
surrounded
by
an
eddying
mass of
bright,
soft-coloured
robes
and
shining
white
limbs,
in
a
melodious whirl
of
laughter
and
laughing
speech.

"The
big
doorway
opened
into
a
proportionately
great
hall
hung with
brown.
The
roof
was
in
shadow,
and
the
windows,
partially glazed
with
coloured
glass
and
partially
unglazed,
admitted
a
tempered
light.
Tire
floor
was
made
up
of
huge
blocks
of
some
very
hard white
metal,
not
plates
nor
slabs—blocks,
and
it
was
so
much
worn, as
I
judged
by
the
going
to
and
fro
of
past
generations,
as
to
be
deeply channelled
along
the
more
frequented
ways.
Transverse
to
the
length were
innumerable
tables
made
of
slabs
of
polished
stone,
raised
perhaps
a
foot
from
the
floor,
and
upon
these
were
heaps
of
fruits.
Some I
recognised
as
a
kind
of
hypertrophied
raspberry
and
orange,
but
for
the
most
part
they
were
strange.

"Between
the
tables
was
scattered
a
great
number
of
cushions. Upon
these
my
conductors
seated
themselves,
signing
for
me
to
do likewise.
With
a
pretty
absence
of
ceremony
they
began
to
eat
the fruit
with
their
hands,
flinging
peel
and
stalks
and
so
forth
into
the round
openings
in
the
sides
of
the
tables.
I
was
not
loth
to
follow
I
heir
example,
for
I
felt
thirsty
and
hungry.
As
I
did
so
I
surveyed
the hall
at
my
leisure.

"And
perhaps
the
thing
that
struck
me
most
was
its
dilapidated look.
The
stained-glass
windows,
which
displayed
only
a
geometrical pattern,
were
broken
in
many
places,
and
the
curtains
that
hung across
the
lower
end
were
thick
with
dust.
And
it
caught
my
eye
that llic
corner
of
the
marble
table
near
me
was
fractured.
Nevertheless,
I he
general
effect
was
extremely
rich
and
picturesque.
There
were, perhaps,
a
couple
of
hundred
people
dining
in
the
hall,
and
most
of
Ihcm,
seated
as
near
to
me
as
they
could
come,
were
watching
me with
interest,
their
little
eyes
shining
over
the
fruit
they
were
eating. All
were
clad
in
the
same
soft,
and
yet
strong,
silky
material.