"Oh, Doctor, don't be so hard on me! I accept all you say, although it is accepting impossibilities."
"Then, about your dream theory," said the Captain; "would you object to my asking if you have ever had such a dream--so vivid and so long?"
"Not that I know of," said I.
"You think that Dr. Frost and my brother and I are mere creatures of your fancy?"
The candles did not give a great light. I could not clearly see his features. He came nearer, moving his stool to my side. My head was below him, so that I was looking up at his face. He was a young man. His face was almost a triangle, with its long jaw.
"I believe that dreams are not very well understood, even by the wisest," he said. "Do me the kindness to confess that your present experience, if a dream, is more wonderful than any other dream you have had."
Though my head was dizzy, I thought I could detect a slight tinge of irony in this excessively polite speech.
"I think it must be," I replied; "although I cannot remember any other dream."
"Then, might not one say that the only dream you are conscious of is not a dream?"
"That contradicts itself," said I.