…now and then, the most grotesque and extravagant attitude. I was wondering what he meant by these attitudes, when he came to an abrupt pause, and, stooping slightly forward, craned his neck in my direction, and began contorting his face in every conceivable shape, till at last he appeared all mouth. Rushing at me he was about to swallow me, when I awoke. I had this dream prior to a time when my affairs were singularly prosperous all round, which condition of things was undoubtedly presaged by the lark (a bird of exceptional good omen), by the carnations, pansies, forget-me-nots, and pink and white roses, by the clearness of the water in the river, and by the deep blue of the sea. I cannot attach any meaning to the figure and its strange antics; they form one of those apparently insoluble enigmas that so frequently occur in fantastic phantomania….

…— so beautiful” that I thought I should never tire looking at her. Pooh! Lil, you needn’t be jealous, old girl! She is none of my sort, anyhow.”Now!” she exclaimed with a queer kind of snarl, as she took off the glove of her left hand so as to show me the tell-tale band of gold on the third finger — ” now, Mr. Bailey, are you satisfied ? There is nothing of the missionary about me, is there?” And when I saw the long, pointed nails, pink and polished like sea-shells, just as I’ve always been told they do them at the lady-barber’s, I coughed. Observe my astuteness, Lil. I saw now that she was no prig from a church or chapel, but a member of what folks call “The Smart Set.” Yet how did she know Mr. Towell, and what brought her here? Was she one of us…