"Oh! You were alone?"

"Quite."

"You made sure you were not dreaming?"

"I made sure of that, instantly. I was not awakened by the apparition. I
was already fully awake."

"Had your mind been running on anything of the kind?"

"Nothing could have been farther from it. I was thinking what a very long
while it would be till breakfast." This was not true as to the order of
the fact; but Hewson could not keep himself from saying it, and it made a
laugh and created a diversion in his favor.

"How long did it seem to last?"

"The vision? That was very curious. The whole affair was quite achronic,
as I may say. The figure was there and it was not there."

"It vanished suddenly?"

"I can't say it vanished at all. It ought still to be there. Have you
ever returned to a place where you had always been wrong as to the points
of the compass, and found yourself right up to a certain moment as you
approached, and then without any apparent change, found yourself
perfectly wrong again? The figure was not there, and it was there, and
then it was not there."