Page 273 - The snake's pass

A TRIP TO PARIS. 261
When Dick came home, he and I had a long talk on
affairs; and I saw that he thoroughly understood all
about the purchase of the whole mountain. Then we
said good-night, and I retired.
I did not sleep very well. I think I was too happy,
and out of the completeness of my happiness there
seemed to grow a fear—some dim haunting dread of a
change — something which would reverse the existing
order of things. And so in dreams the Drowsy God
played at ball with me; now throwing me to a dizzy
height of joy, and then, as I fell swiftly through dark-
ness, arresting my flight into the nether gloom with some
new sweet hope. It seemed to me that I was awake all
the night—and yet I knew I must have slept for I had
distinct recollections of dreams in which all the persons
and circumstances lately present to my mind were
strangely jumbled together. The jumble was kaleido-
scopic; there was an endless succession of its phases,
but the pieces all remained the same. There were
moments when all seemed aglow with rosy light, and
hard on them, others horrid with the gloom of despair or
fear ; but in all, the dominating idea was the mountain
standing against the sunset, always as the embodiment
of the ruling emotion of the scene—and always Norah's
beautiful eyes shone upon me. I seemed to live over
again in isolated moments all the past weeks ; but in such
a way that the legends and myths and stories of Knock -
calltecrore which I had heard were embodied in each
moment. Thus, Murdock had always a part in the