He puzzled over this peculiar cylinder for some time and replaced it.
Then he turned to the square apparatus and examined that. He opened a
sort of lid and found one of the double cylinders within, and on the
upper edge a little stud like the stud of an electric bell. He pressed
this and a rapid clicking began and ceased. He became aware of voices and
music, and noticed a play of colour on the smooth front face. He suddenly
realised what this might be, and stepped back to regard it.
On the flat surface was now a little picture, very vividly coloured, and
in this picture were figures that moved. Not only did they move, but they
were conversing in clear small voices. It was exactly like reality viewed
through an inverted opera glass and heard through a long tube. His
interest was seized at once by the situation, which presented a man
pacing up and down and vociferating angry things to a pretty but petulant
woman. Both were in the picturesque costume that seemed so strange to
Graham. "I have worked," said the man, "but what have you been doing?"
"Ah!" said Graham. He forgot everything else, and sat down in the chair.
Within five minutes he heard himself, named, heard "when the Sleeper
wakes," used jestingly as a proverb for remote postponement, and passed
himself by, a thing remote and incredible. But in a little while he knew
those two people like intimate friends.
At last the miniature drama came to an end, and the square face of the
apparatus was blank again.
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