larm yourself, Miss Granger," he answered, recovering himself
with a jerk; "you did not say anything dreadful, only that you were glad
to see me. What were you dreaming about?"

Beatrice looked at him doubtfully; perhaps his words did not ring quite
true.

"I think that I had better tell you as I have said so much," she
answered. "Besides, it was a very curious dream, and if I believed in
dreams it would rather frighten me, only fortunately I do not. Sit down
and I will tell it to you before I forget it. It is not very long."

He took the chair to which she pointed, and she began, speaking in the
voice of one yet laden with the memories of sleep.

"I dreamed that I stood in space. Far to my right was a great globe of
light, and to my left was another globe, and I knew that the globes were
named Life and Death. From the globe on the right to the globe on the
left, and back again, a golden shuttle, in which two flaming eyes were
set, was shot continually, and I knew also that this was the shuttle of
Destiny, weaving the web of Fate. Presently the shuttle flew, leaving
behind it a long silver thread, and the eyes in the shuttle were such as
your eyes. Again the shuttle sped through space, and this time its eyes
were like my eyes, and the thread it left behind it was twisted from a
woman's hair. Half way between the globes of Life and Death my thread
was broken, but the shuttle flew on and vanished. For a moment the
thread hung in air, then a wind rose and blew it, so that it floated
away like a spider's web, till it struck upon your silver thread of life
and began to twist round and round it. As it twisted it grew larger and
heavier, till at last it was thick as a great tress of hair, and the
silver line bent beneath the weight so that I saw it soon must break.
Then while I wondered what would happen, a white hand holding a knife
slid slowly down the silver line, and with the knife severed the
wrappings of woman's hair, which fell and floated slowly away, like a
little cloud touched with sunlight, till they were lost in darkness. But
the thread of silver that was your line of life, sprang up quivering and
making a sound like sighs, till at last it sighed itself to silence.

"Then I seemed to sleep, and when I woke I was floating upon such a
misty sea as we saw last night. I had lost all sight of land, and I
could not remember what the stars were like, nor how I had been taught
to steer, nor understand where I must go.