e on the scene, the doctor
hospitably insisted that his guests of the evening should be his guests
of the morning as well. It would still be too early when they got back
for the people at the hotel to receive them, and they would find bed and
breakfast at Mr. Hawbury's house.

At the first pause in the conversation between Allan and the doctor,
Midwinter, who had neither joined in the talk nor listened to the talk,
touched his friend on the arm. "Are you better?" he asked, in a whisper.
"Shall you soon be composed enough to tell me what I want to know?"

Allan's eyebrows contracted impatiently; the subject of the dream, and
Midwinter's obstinacy in returning to it, seemed to be alike distasteful
to him. He hardly answered with his usual good humor. "I suppose I shall
have no peace till I tell you," he said, "so I may as well get it over
at once."

"No!" returned Midwinter, with a look at the doctor and his oarsmen.
"Not where other people can hear it--not till you and I are alone."

"If you wish to see the last, gentlemen, of your quarters for the
night," interposed the doctor, "now is your time! The coast will shut
the vessel out in a minute more."

In silence on the one side and on the other, the two Armadales looked
their last at the fatal ship. Lonely and lost they had found the wreck
in the mystery of the summer night; lonely and lost they left the wreck
in the radiant beauty of the summer morning.

An hour later the doctor had seen his guests established in their
bedrooms, and had left them to take their rest until the breakfast hour
arrived.

Almost as soon as his back was turned, the doors of both rooms opened
softly, and Allan and Midwinter met in the passage.

"Can you sleep after what has happened?" asked Allan.

Midwinter shook his head. "You were coming to my room, were you not?" he
said. "What for?"

"To ask you to keep me company. What were you coming to _my_ room for?"

"To ask you to tell me your dream."

"Damn the dream! I want to forget all about it."

"And _I_ want to know all about it."

Both paused; both refrained instinctively from saying more. For the
first time since the beginning of their friendship they were on the
verge of a disagreement, and that on the subject of the dream. Allan's
good temper just stopped them on the brink.

"You are the most obstinate fellow alive," he said; "but if you will
know all about it, you must know all about it, I suppose. Come into my
room, an