Looking Backward, 2000 to 1887

eyes. He had better see

en, that you wi

s, the second a woman's, a

w he seems," r

se me," persis

y," whispered a thir

," answered the man. "Quick,

benevolence mingled with great curiosity upon his features. He was an utter stranger. I raised myself on an elbow and looked aroun

u feel?" h

m I?" I

my house," w

ame I

eanwhile, I beg you will feel no anxiety. You are

me how I came to be indebted to your hospitality? What has happened

mile. "It will be better to avoid agitating talk until you are a little more yourself. Will you

sat up on the couch, although with an

e where I am and what you hav

would rather you did not insist upon explanations so soon, but if you do, I will try to s

e here. You can tell me quite as much on that point as I can tell you. You have just been roused from a deep sleep, or, more prope

e, at about ten o'clock. I left my man Sawyer orders

pression, "but I am sure that he is excusable for not being here. And now can you tell

t an entire day. Great heavens! that cannot be possible; and yet I have an odd se

ratio

nday, th

, the 30th

rse, unless I have slept in

nth is S

t I've slept since May! God in

panion; "you say that it was M

es

sk of wh

im, incapable of spee

?" I feebly e

er you have told me that I shall be ab

e year 188

hould take another draught fro

se. The causes of all phenomena are equally adequate, and the results equally matters of course. That you should be startled by what I shall tell you is to be expected; but I am confident that you will not permit it to affect your equanimity unduly. Your appearance is that of a young man of

broth at my companion's suggestion, and, immediately af

y to study him and meditate upon my extraordinary situation, before he observed that I was awake. My giddiness was all gone, and my mind perfectly clear. The story that I had been asleep one hundred and thirteen years, wh

by my side, with a face so refined and ingenuous, was no party to any scheme of crime or outrage. Then it occurred to me to question if I might not be the butt of some elaborate practical joke on the part of friends who had somehow learned the secret of my underground chamber and taken this means of impressing me with the peril of mesmeric experiments. There were great difficulties in the way of this theory;

nd I can see that it has done you good. You look much better.

better," I sai

t," he pursued, "and your surprise when

hat I had slept one hun

act

n ironical smile, "that the stor

limit can be set to the possible duration of a trance when the external conditions protect the body from physical injury. This trance of yours is indeed the longest of which there is any positive record, but there is no known reason wherefore, had you not been dis

imposition. The impressive and even eloquent manner of this man would have lent dignity to an argument that the moon was made of chee

ulars as to the circumstances under which you discovered this ch

what had evidently been the foundation walls of an ancient house. A layer of ashes and charcoal on the top of the vault showed that the house above had perished by fire. The vault itself was perfectly intact, the cement being as good as when first applied. It had a door, but this we could not force, and found entrance by removing one of the flagstones which formed the roof. The air which came up was stagnant but pure, dry and not cold. Descending with a lantern, I found myself in an apartment fitted up as a bedroom in the style of the nineteenth century. On the bed lay a young man. That he was dead and must have been dead a century was of course to be taken for granted; but the extraordinary state of preservation of the body struck me and the medical colleagues whom I had summoned with amazement. That the art of such embalming as this had ever been known we should not have believed, yet here seemed conclusive test

se of my reflection in a mirror hanging on the wall of the room. I rose and went up to it. The face I saw was the face to a hair and a line and not a day older than the one I had looked at as I tied my cravat before going to Edith that Decoration Day, which, as this

und chamber, your appearance is unchanged. That should not amaze you. It is by virtue of the total arrest of the vital functions that you have s

ely yourself too intelligent to suppose that anybody but an imbecile could be deceived by it. Spare me any more of this elaborate nonsense and once for all tell me whe

believe that this

it necessary to ask

e I cannot convince you, you shall convince yours

lied angrily, "as I may have to prove

to be too fully persuaded that you are the victim of a trick, lest the reacti

and I followed him from the room with an extraordinary mixture of emotions. He led the way up two flights of stairs and then up a shorter one, which landed us upo

h trees, among which statues glistened and fountains flashed in the late afternoon sun. Public buildings of a colossal size and an architectural grandeur unparalleled in my day raised their stately piles on every side. Surely I had never seen this city nor one compar

the truth concerning the prodig