En otro momento estábamos cara a cara, yo y esta criatura frágil venida del futuro. Se acercó directamente a mí y me rio a los ojos. La ausencia de cualquier signo de miedo en su porte me llamó la atención de inmediato. Luego se volvió hacia los otros dos que lo seguían y les habló en una lengua extraña, muy dulce y fluida.
“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.
“Y luego, examinando más de cerca sus facciones, advertí otras peculiaridades en su belleza de porcelana de Sajonia. Su cabello, que era uniformemente rizado, terminaba abruptamente en el cuello y la mejilla; no había la más mínima traza de él en la cara, y sus orejas eran