Question

veller’s return?
Which sentence in this excerpt from The Time Machine by H. G. Wells indicates that the narrator has little hope for the Time Traveller’s return?I felt an unreasonable amazement. I knew that something strange had happened, and for the moment could not distinguish what the strange thing might be. As I stood staring, the door into the garden opened, and the man-servant appeared. We looked at each other. Then ideas began to come. "Has Mr. —— gone out that way? " said I. "No, sir. No one has come out this way. I was expecting to find him here." At that I understood. At the risk of disappointing Richardson I stayed on, waiting for the Time Traveller; waiting for the second, perhaps still stranger story, and the specimens and photographs he would bring with him. But I am beginning now to fear that I must wait a lifetime. The Time Traveller vanished three years ago. And, as everybody knows now, he has never returned.

Answer 1

Answer:

But I am beginning now to fear that I must wait a lifetime.

Explanation:

This is the sentence that makes the audience notice that the narrator realizes that the Time Traveller might never return. In the previous sentences he is only waiting for his appereance, although he felt a strange feeling, he didn't show any despair until this sentence. The word "fear" is the one that gives us an important clue, this is the moment he assumes the worst.

By staying there an waiting for the Time Traveller, the narrator shows that there is still hope of his return. But by stating that he might wait a "lifetime" he also shows that this hope is almost imperceptible.