That night I had such an extraordinary
dream! I dreamed I was floundering about the Rue de la Pompe, and had
just got to the avenue gate, and you were there."
"Good heavens!" she whispered, and turned white again, and trembled all
over, "what do you mean?"
"Yes," I said, "you came to my rescue. I was pursued by gnomes and
horrors."
_She._ "Good heavens! by--by two little jailers, a man and his wife, who
danced and were trying to hem you in?"
It was now my turn to ejaculate "Good heavens!" We both shook and
trembled together.
I said: "You gave me your hand, and all came straight at once. My old
school rose in place of the jail."
_She._ "With a yellow omnibus? And boys going off to their _premiere
communion?_"
_I._ "Yes; and there was a crowd--le Pere et la Mere
Francois, and Madame Liard, the grocer's wife, and--and
Mimsey Seraskier, with her cropped head. And
an organ was playing a tune I knew quite well, but
cannot now recall." ...
_She._ "Wasn't it 'Maman, les p'tits bateaux?'"
_I._ Oh, of _course!_
_"'Maman, les p'tits bateaux
Qui vont sur l'eau,
Ont-ils des jambes?'"_
_She_. "That's it!"
_"'Eh oui, petit beta!
S'ils n'avaient pas
Ils n'march'raient pas!'"_
She sank back in her chair, pale and prostrate.
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