ore particularly as there was
a strong--an almost certain--possibility of an early betterment of her
own and her daughter's fortunes.

Dreams, said Mrs. Makebelieve, did not come for nothing. There was
more in dreams than was generally understood. Many and many were the
dreams which she herself had been visited by, and they had come true
so often that she could no longer disregard their promises,
admonishments or threats. Of course many people had dreams which were
of no consequence, and these could usually be traced to gluttony or a
flighty inconstant imagination. Drunken people, for instance, often
dreamed strange and terrible things, but, even while they were awake,
these people were liable to imaginary enemies whom their clouded eyes
and intellects magnified beyond any thoughtful proportions, and when
they were asleep their dreams would also be subject to this haze and
whirl of unreality and hallucination.

Mary said that sometimes she did not dream at all, and at other times
she dreamed very vividly, but usually could not remember what the
dream had been about when she awakened, and once she had dreamed that
some one gave her a shilling which she placed carefully under her
pillow, and this dream was so real that in the morning she put her
hand under the pillow to see if the shilling was there, but it was
not. The very next night she dreamed the same dream, and as she put
the phantom money under her pillow she said out loudly to herself, "I
am dreaming this, and I dreamt it last night also." Her mother said if
she had dreamt it for the third time some one would have given her a
shilling surely. To this Mary agreed, and admitted that she had tried
very hard to dream it on the third night, but somehow could not do it.

"When my brother comes home from America," said Mrs. Makebelieve,
"we'll go away from this part of the city at once. I suppose he'd want
a rather big house on the south side--Rathfarnham or Terenure way, or,
maybe, Donnybrook. Of course he'll ask me to mind the house for him
and keep the servants in order, and provide a different dinner every
day, and all that; while you could go out to the neighbors' places to
play lawn tennis or cricket, and have lunch. It will be a very great
responsibility."

"What kind of dinners would you have?" said Mary.

Mrs. Makebelieve's eyes glistened, and she leaned forward in the bed;
but just as she was about to reply the laboring man in the next room
slammed his do