were
talking about him at the Opera, and over the _baccarat_ and _bouillotte_
at La Topaze's later. To escape him I went to bed and smoked myself to
sleep. And then a queer thing came to pass: I had a dream--I who never
dream; and this is what I dreamed:

"I saw a wide, rich country that I knew. A starless night hung over it
like a pall. I saw a narrow track running through it, straight, both
ways, for leagues. Something sped along this track with a hurtling rush
and roar. This something that at first had looked like a red-eyed devil,
with dark sides full of dim fire, resolved itself, as I watched it,
presently, into a more conventional night express-train. It flew along,
though, as no express-train ever travelled yet; for all that, I was able
to keep it quite easily in view. I could count the carriages as they
whirled by. One--two--three--four--five--six; but I could only see
distinctly into one. Into that one with perfect distinctness. Into that
one I seemed forced to look.

"It was the fourth carriage. Two people were in it. They sat in opposite
corners; both were sleeping. The one who sat facing forward was a
woman--a girl, rather. I could see that; but I couldn't see her face.
The blind was drawn across the lamp in the roof, and the light was very
dim; moreover, this girl lay back in the shadow. Yet I seemed to know
her, and I knew that her face was very fair. She wore a cloak that
shrouded her form completely, yet her form was familiar to me.

"The figure opposite to her was a man's. Strangely familiar to me too
this figure was. But, as he slept, his head had sunk upon his breast,
and the shadow cast upon his face by the low-drawn travelling-cap he
wore hid it from me. Yet if I had seemed to know the girl's face, I was
certain I knew the man's. But as I could see, so I could remember,
neither. And there was an absolute torture in this which I can't explain
to you,--in this inability, and in my inability to wake them from their
sleep.

"From the first I had been conscious of a desire to do that. This desire
grew stronger every second. I tried to call to them, and my tongue
wouldn't move. I tried to spring toward them, to thrust out my arms and
touch them, and my limbs were paralyzed. And then I tried to shut my
eyes to what I _knew_ must happen, and my eyes were held open and
dragged to look on in spite of me. And I saw this:

"I saw the door of the carriage where these two sleepers, whose sleep
was so horrib