Time Away And Time Of Return

There is an obvious point to make about the quotations in the previous post. A sea voyage takes time so that wives left behind await the return whereas a time traveller could return to the moment of departure so that no waiting would be necessary. As it happens, Henry DeTamble has no control over his moments of departure or arrival which is why Clare does often have to wait.

Life is different for a Time Patroller:

"As a field agent, I'd go through days, weeks, or months between saying good-bye to her in the morning and returning for dinner..."

-Poul Anderson, "The Sorrow of Odin the Goth" IN Anderson, Time Patrol (Riverdale, NY, December 2010), pp. 333-465 AT 1935, p. 345.

One Time Patroller expects another not to stay away from home unnecessarily:

"'Didn't you return to your place in New York in '88 when you were through? I mean, you didn't let it stand months vacant, did you?'"

-Poul Anderson, The Shield of Time (New York, 1991), PART FOUR, 1990 A. D., p. 180.

We have been drawn back into the intricacies of time travel but maybe we should now return to the conflicted characters of Anderson's The Winter Of The World and reread their narrative to its conclusion.