“To nurse me, Gwen? Ah! how good of you,” interrupted Lionel.
“No, Lionel, I don’t want you to have a wrong impression of me, it was not at all to nurse you, it was in the hopes that you would renew that fascinating dream. You were most entertaining that night, and I laughed outright at the funny things you said.”
“I daresay it was as amusing as the play you would have gone to that night,” laughingly remarked Lionel.
“Oh! my dear Lionel, I was so very tired of my social entertainments; and the whole show had lost a good deal of its glamour, for it was my third season.”
“So you thought my dream was more diverting, and therefore decided to remain in the seat for which you had not paid.”
“Yes, that’s it; I must confess the truth, for we must never deceive each other again.”
“Poor little Gwen, how you must have hated me, for I am ashamed to say, some of my remarks were anything but flattering.”
“No, Lionel; but you taught me how to know you, and I learned how to know myself. I have sat night after night in this chair, listening to your dream, watching every phase of your regenerated London. I shared in all your reforms, and at times you even answered my questions. I could start your weird dream at any time, and at a suggestion of mine you would take up the thread of your narrative just where you had left it the night before.”
“It must have been like a sensational _feuilleton_ which you expected each day to thrill you anew. But how worn out you must be, sweetheart. How long have I been in this condition?” inquired Lionel.
“Two months, dearest; but instead of wearing me out this hallucination kept me alive and put new blood into my veins. I can quite well see that Sir Edward believes I am on the verge of a mental collapse. Poor man, he does not see what we see and cannot feel as we do; he is still hopelessly ignorant.”
“What a narrow escape I have had,” remarked Lionel.
“It was miraculous, and the surgeons said they only knew of one other case in which a man who had been shot right through the head recovered consciousness after two months.”
“I daresay everyone will say my brain is affected whenever I say or do anything out of the common.”
“Never mind, Lionel, you and I have seen into each other’s heart, and that is sufficient to outweigh the loss of the world’s approbation. You see, we cannot look to a storm to wash away all our world’s shams; so we shall have to pass for eccentric or unorthodox, if we mean to live in a world of our own.”