2048-bit key...I'm leery

[lce@wwa.com (Larry E)]

Ok, call me a skeptic.

I made to tries at generating a 2048-bit key on my 33-MHZ 386 machine
using PGP 2.6.2.

Yes, I know I only get 2047 bits, but that's not what bothers me. 
What bothers me is the first key generation only took thirty seconds,
and the second one under ten minutes.

Two questions:

1) Why such disparity in the two times?

2) Can the key generation possibly be done on my machine that
quickly?  I was expecting it to take at least several hours, based on
what I've been reading in the cryptology groups.