gentleman kindly call me a cab?' said Parsons, in a voice
which might have deceived anybody. 'You will break your father's heart,
Jacky,' he continued. 'Now come home to your mother without making any
more trouble.'

'You are not my father,' I answered, still speaking as loudly as I
could. 'You are a thief, you make false coin, and you live at----'

'Ah!' cried an old lady, who formed one of the small crowd which by this
time had collected, 'here is a policeman at last,' and at the same
moment I felt Mr. Parsons' grasp relax. Pushing his way through the
throng, he stepped into the middle of the road, stopped a passing
hansom, entered it and was driven off. While the old lady intercepted
the policeman, I seized the opportunity to get away, turning my steps
towards Hyde Park, where I sat down on a seat.

Now I began to find a difficulty in keeping my eyes open; my chin
constantly dropped on to my chest, and then I would wake again with a
start.

I seemed to be living again through all that had occurred since I left
Castlemore: again I was selling the silver watch and chain at Broughton,
while the tramp gazed at me through the window; again I was being
pursued along the main road, sleeping under the tree in the wood, robbed
of all I was possessed in the chestnut plantation. Once more I was
awakened after a short sleep by Mr. Baker's dog, Tiger, and taken to the
cosy farmhouse with the red blinds, where Eliza gave me food and a
comfortable bed, in which I dared not lie down to rest, because I knew
that Mr. Baker would be certain to carry me back to Ascot House the
following morning. Then again I was racing across fields, floundering
into damp ditches in the darkness, sleeping in the shed, and afterwards
helping a bicyclist to blow up his tyre in the country lane. Once more I
seemed to be lying prone in the cornfield, while Mr. Turton inquired
whether Mr. Westlake had seen me, and Jacintha was looking down from the
other side of the hedge at the same moment. I was sleeping in the empty
house on the forest, and shivering at the weird, ghostly sounds in the
night; I was again delighted to make friends with Patch, and regretful
to have him taken away from me by the fat ginger-beer man.

I could almost taste the pear and the preserved apricot which I had
eaten in the arbour at Colebrooke Park with Jacintha and Dick; once more
I made the acquaintance of Mr. Parsons in the train.

Which, if any, of these were waking memories