The dream: A novel
hand.... 

 When the others came back he had just awakened. 

 He was sitting up with a sleepy expression and Sunray was kneeling beside him with her hand on his shoulder.  "Wake up!" she said. 

 He looked at her as if he did not know her and then with puzzled eyes at Radiant.  "Then there is another life!" he said at last. 

 "Sarnac!" cried Sunray, shaking him.  "Don't you know me?" 

 He passed a hand over his face.  "Yes," he said slowly.  "Your name is Sunray. I seem to remember. Sunray.... Not Hetty—  No. Though you are very like Hetty. Queer! And mine—mine is Sarnac. 

 "Of course! I am Sarnac."  He laughed at Willow.  "But I thought I was Harry Mortimer Smith," he said.  "I did indeed. A moment ago I was Henry Mortimer Smith.... Henry Mortimer Smith." 

 He looked about him.  "Mountains," he said, "sunshine, white narcissus. Of course, we walked up here this very morning. Sunray splashed me at a waterfall.... I remember it perfectly.... And yet I was in bed—shot. I was in bed.... A dream? ... Then I have had a dream, a whole lifetime, two thousand years ago!" 

 "What do you mean?" said Sunray. 

 "A lifetime—childhood, boyhood, manhood. And death. He killed me. Poor rat!—he killed me!" 

 "A dream?" 

 "A dream—but a very vivid dream. The reallest of dreams. If it was a dream.... I can answer all your questions now, Sunray. I have lived through a whole life in that old world. I know.... 

 "It is as though that life was still the real one and this only a dream.... I was in a bed. Five minutes ago I was in bed. I was dying.... The doctor said, 'He is going.'  And I heard the rustle of my wife coming across the room...." 

 "Your wife!" cried Sunray. 

 "Yes—my wife—Milly." 

 Sunray looked at Willow with raised eyebrows and a helpless expression. 

 Sarnac stared at her, dreamily puzzled.  "Milly," he repeated very faintly.  "She was by the window." 


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