incredible, so strange-- well, it seems incredible and strange yet--
and I have been expecting to wake and find it all a dream. Indeed,
when you overtook me at this spot where we now stand, I feared you had
come to tell me it was a mistake; to hurl me from the clouds to the
hard earth again."

"But it was just the reverse of that," he cried eagerly. "Just the
reverse, remember. I came to confirm your dream, and you received from
my hand the first of your fortune."

"Yes," she admitted, her eyes fixed on the sidewalk.

"I see how it was," he continued enthusiastically. "I suppose you had
never drawn a check before."

"Never," she conceded.

"And this was merely a test. You set up your dream against the hard
common sense of a bank, which has no dreams. You were to transform
your vision into the actual, or find it vanish. When the commonplace
cashier passed forth the coin, their jingle said to you, 'The supposed
phantasy is real,' but the gold pieces themselves at that supreme
moment meant no more to you than so many worthless counters, so you
turned your back upon them."

She looked up at him, her eyes, though moist, illumined with pleasure
inspired by the sympathy in his tones rather than the import of his
words. The girl's life heretofore had been as scant of kindness as of
cash, and there was a deep sincerity in his voice which was as
refreshing to her lonesome heart as it was new to her experience. This