Authors: Travelers In Time

Philip Van Doren Stern (ed) (173 page)

BOOK: Philip Van Doren Stern (ed)

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"Well,
let
us
have
the
dream,"
said
I;
"for
it
is
clear
that
you
are spoiling
to
tell
it."

He
devoted
himself
anew
for
a
few
moments
to
his
pipe
and
to
his thoughts,
and,
having
arranged
that
both
of
these
were
in
working order,
he
recommenced:

"After
all
this
you
will
naturally
expect
that
something
dramatic or
astonishing
should
follow;
but
it
is
not
surprise,
not
even
interest that
is
the
centre
of
my
thought
about
this
dream.
The
chief
person in
the
dream
was
myself;
that
is
certain.
The
feeling
of
identity
was complete
during
the
dream;
but
my
self
in
the
dream
was
as
unlike my
self
sitting
here
as
you
and
I
are
unlike
each
other.
I
had
a
different
physique
in
the
dream;
for,
while
I
am
now
rather
dumpish
and

fair
and
moonfaced,
I
was,
last
night,
long
and
lean
as
a
rake,
with a
black
thatch
sprouting
over
a
hatchet
head.
I
was
different
mentally;
my
character
was
not
the
one
I
now
recognise
myself
by;
and I
was
capable
of
being
intrigued
by
events
and
speculations
in
which the
person
sitting
before
you
would
not
take
the
slightest
interest."

He
paused
for
a
few
seconds
as
though
reviewing
his
memories; but,
on
a
movement
from
me,
he
continued
again,
with
many
pauses, and
with
much
snorings
on
his
pipe,
as
tho'
he
were
drawing
both encouragement
and
dubiety
from
it.

"Of
course
I
am
romantically
minded.
We
all
are;
the
cat
and
the dog
are.
All
life,
and
all
that
is
in
it,
is
romantic,
for
we
and
they and
it
are
growing
into
a
future
that
is
all
mystery
out
of
a
past
not less
mysterious;
and
the
fear
or
hope
that
reaches
to
us
from
these extremes
are
facets
of
the
romance
which
is
life
or
consciousness,
or whatever
else
we
please
to
name
it.

"But,"
he
said,
energetically,
"I
do
not
pine
to
rescue
a
distressed dragon
from
a
savage
maiden;
nor
do
I
dream
of
myself
dispensing life
and
death
and
immortality
with
a
spoon.
Life
is
Romance;
I
am living
and
I
am
Romance;
and
that
adventure
is
as
much
as
I
have the
ability
to
embark
on.

"Well,
last
night,
in
a
dream,
I
was
a
person
natively
capable
of such
embarkations;
and
altho'
I
did
not
rescue
anything
from
anybody,
I
am
sure
I
should
have
done
it
as
one
to
the
manner
bom. And
that
character
fitted
me
there,
then,
as
a
cat
fits
into
its
skin.

"In
the
dream
I
was
unmistakable
I,
but
I
was
not
this
I,
either physically,
mentally,
or
temperamentally.

"And
the
time
was
different.
I
don't
know
what
date
it
was,
but
it was
not
to-day.
I
don't
know
what
place
it
was,
but
it
was
not
this place.
I
was
acting
in
a
convention
foreign
to
the
one
we
act
in,
and I
was
acting
from
an
historical
or
ancestral
convention
which
has
no parallel
in
these
times.
I
don't
remember
what
language
I
was
speaking.
I
don't
remember
the
names
of
the
people
I
was
in
contact
with; nor
do
I
recollect
addressing
anybody
by
name.
I
was
too
familiar
with them
to
require
such
explanatory
symbols.
You
and
I
have
been
chattering
these
years—do
we
ever
call
one
another
by
a
name?
There
is no
need
to
do
so;
and
there
was
no
need
to
do
so
with
the
people of
my
dream."