d I'll tell you."

He led the way, and Midwinter followed. The door closed and shut them in
together.

V. THE SHADOW OF THE FUTURE.

When Mr. Hawbury joined his guests in the breakfast-room, the strange
contrast of character between them which he had noticed already was
impressed on his mind more strongly than ever. One of them sat at the
well-spread table, hungry and happy, ranging from dish to dish, and
declaring that he had never made such a breakfast in his life. The other
sat apart at the window; his cup thanklessly deserted before it was
empty, his meat left ungraciously half-eaten on his plate. The
doctor's morning greeting to the two accurately expressed the differing
impressions which they had produced on his mind.

He clapped Allan on the shoulder, and saluted him with a joke. He
bowed constrainedly to Midwinter, and said, "I am afraid you have not
recovered the fatigues of the night."

"It's not the night, doctor, that has damped his spirits," said Allan.
"It's something I have been telling him. It is not my fault, mind. If
I had only known beforehand that he believed in dreams, I wouldn't have
opened my lips."

"Dreams?" repeated the doctor, looking at Midwinter directly, and
addressing him under a mistaken impression of the meaning of Allan's
words. "With your constitution, you ought to be well used to dreaming by
this time."

"This way, doctor; you have taken the wrong turning!" cried Allan.
"I'm the dreamer, not he. Don't look astonished; it wasn't in this
comfortable house; it was on board that confounded timber-ship. The fact
is, I fell asleep just before you took us off the wreck; and it's not to
be denied that I had a very ugly dream. Well, when we got back here--"

"Why do you trouble Mr. Hawbury about a matter that cannot possibly
interest him?" asked Midwinter, speaking for the first time, and
speaking very impatiently.

"I beg your pardon," returned the doctor, rather sharply; "so far as I
have heard, the matter does interest me."

"That's right, doctor!" said Allan. "Be interested, I beg and pray; I
want you to clear his head of the nonsense he has got in it now. What
do you think? He will have it that my dream is a warning to me to avoid
certain people; and he actually persists in saying that one of those
people is--himself! Did you ever hear the like of it? I took great
pains; I explained the whole thing to him. I said, warning be hanged;
it's all indigestion! You don't know