l say I've merely come to make an
inquiry. Can she tell me of any one who interprets dreams? Come with
me!"

But as her aunt pleaded an excuse, Gladys went alone.

The Vicar was in the garden in his shirt sleeves, and though obviously
surprised to see Gladys, seemed quite prepared to enter into
conversation with her. But Gladys was not enamoured of clergymen. Her
ways were not their ways, and she had come strictly on business.
Consequently she somewhat curtly demanded to be conducted into the
presence of his wife, who received her very affably.

"Why, how very strange," she observed when Gladys had stated the
object of her visit. "I was asked a similar question only yesterday. A
Miss Rosenberg, who is staying with us, had an extraordinary dream
about trees and flowers--only it took the form of a poem, which she
awoke repeating. There were several verses--quite doggerel it is
true--but nevertheless rather remarkable for a dream. She wrote them
down, and asked me if I could tell her whether there was any hidden
meaning in them. Here they are," and she handed Gladys two pages of
sermon paper on which was written--

"In the greenest of green valleys,
Aglow with summer sun,
Lived a maiden fair and radiant,
More radiant there was none.

"The flowers gave her their friendship;
Her couch was on the ground.
A happier, gayer maiden,
Was nowhere to be found.

"The air was filled with music
Sung by the babbling brook.
Sweet lullabies with chorus clear
In which the flowers partook.

"This maiden knew not sorrow,
Until an evil day;
When riding lone across the moors,
A hunter lost his way.

"And chancing on this valley,
He met the maiden sweet.
Her beauty overwhelmed him;
He fell love-sick at her feet.

"Despite the fervent warnings
Of her friends the flowers and trees,
She listened to his courting;
And with him roamed the leas.

"The leas, far from the valley,
They rode the livelong night;
Till a heavy mist descending
Hid the roadway from their sight.

"Uprose, then, forms of evil.
From out the mocking gloom;
And seizing horse and hunter scared,
Left the maiden to her doom.

"Travellers now within those regions,
Through the nightly grey fog see
A woman's shade crawl slow along,
To a ghastly melody.

"And those who linger--follow
The phantom pale and wan