human
Don't waste your time like that! Make haste, let me have five minutes. I am in a hurry.
gpt
Have you got five minutes to spare?
human
Oh yes, she replied.
gpt
Why?
human
Let me have them at once then. A gentleman left twenty-five minutes behind him yesterday and I want to make up half-an-hour for a regular customer!
gpt
But--but--O what do you mean? I have got five minutes to spare and I'll devote them to you if you like, but I _can't_ give them to you as though they were a piece of toffee,
human
Time is a tough customer, you know. He is here, he is there, he is gone! He is, he was, he will be. Yet you cannot trap Time, for he is like a sunbeam,
gpt
There, that five minutes is gone--wasted, passed into the vast vacuum of eternity! With my friend Shakespeare of Stratford-on-Avon I can tell you all about time! 'Time travels in divers paces with divers persons. I'll tell you who Time ambles withal, who Time trots withal, who Time gallops withal, and who he stands still withal!' Oh, I know Father Time and all his tricks. I have counted the Sands of Time. I supply him with his Hour Glass. Don't you apprehend me?
human
I am collecting Time. Time, so my copy books told me, was meant for Slaves. I always felt sorry for the Slaves. They have no Time, you know, because it is meant for them. Lots of things are meant for you, only you won't get them. Britons never will be Slaves, so they'll never want for Time. However, as Time was meant for Slaves, I mean to let them have as much as I can. So every spare minute or two I can get, I of course send them over to them.
gpt
It is ridiculous. You cannot measure time and cut off a bit like that,
human
Oh yes, you can. A client of mine was laid up the other day--in fact he was in bed for a fortnight, so, as he had no use for the time he had on hand before him, he just went to sleep and sent ten days round to me!
gpt
Oh, Mr Zankiwank, what is this gentleman saying?
human
It's all perfectly true, answered the Zankiwank.
gpt
You often hear of somebody who has half an hour to spare, don't you?
human
Of course.
gpt
Very good. Sometimes you will hear, too, of somebody who has lost ten minutes.
human
I see,
gpt
And somebody else will tell you they do not know what to do with their Time?
human
Go on,
gpt
Well, instead of letting all the Time be wasted, Mr Swinglebinks has opened his exchange to receive all the spare time he can, and this he distributes amongst those who want an hour or a day or a week. But they have to pay for it----
human
Pay for it?
gpt
Time is money,
human
There you are. If Time is money you can exchange Time for money and money for Time. Is not that feasible?