much altered in different districts by drainage, and cutting, or
planting--altered for the better, however, as a rule. And one old
gentleman had heard that before, but did not understand it exactly, so
I explained it to him; and then I talked about changes of climate in
general, and the formation of beds of coal, and the ice period, and
sun-spots, and the theory of comets, and about my husband getting up
to see the last one, and going out in a felt hat and dressing-gown
with a bed-candle to look for it--and about that dream of mine, did I
tell you? I dreamt the comet came into our drawing-room, and the leg
of a Chinese table turned into a snake and snorted at it, and the
comet looked so taken aback that I woke myself with a shout of
laughter. And then we talked of popular superstitions about comets,
and dreams, and ghosts-- particularly ghosts, and I told a number of
creepy stories, and one old gentleman pretended he didn't believe in
them, but he did, and so did the other without any pretence; and we
talked about Darwinism, and the nature of the soul, and Nihilism, and
the state of society--and--and a few other things. And they were such
dear delightful old gentlemen, and they knew such a lot, and were so
clever; and one of them was a Railway Director, and the other couldn't
let his farms, and was bothered about his pheasants, and wanted to
have the trains altered to suit him. I should so like to meet them
both again."

"And how long did all this take, Ideala?"

"Oh, some hours. I fancy their dreams would be rather confused last
night," she added, naively.

"Poor old gentlemen!" said I.