“I can’t quite explain,” he replied in a slow voice. “They come and they go, and I forget them, because they fade out, just like a dream does, you know.”
“You must remember something; try to tell me about them.”
“Well, I seem to be among a great many people whom I have never met. Yet I know them and they know me, and talk to me about all sorts of things. For instance, if I am puzzling over anything they will explain it quite clearly, but afterwards I always forget the explanation and am no wiser than I was before. A hand holding a cloth seems to wipe it out of my mind, just as one cleans a slate.”
“Is that all?”
“Not quite. Occasionally I meet the people afterwards. For instance, Thomas Sims, the cabman, was one of them, and,” he added colouring, “forgive me for saying so, but you are another. I knew it at once, the moment I saw you, and that is what made me feel so friendly.”
“How very odd!” she exclaimed, “and how delightful. Because, you see—well never mind——”
He looked at her expectantly, but as she said no more, went on.
“Then now and again I see places before I really do see them. For example, I think that presently we shall pass along a hillside with great mountain slopes above and below us covered with dark trees. Opposite to us also, running up to three peaks with a patch of snow on the centre peak, but not quite at the top.” He closed his eyes, and added, “Yes, and there is a village at the bottom of the valley by a swift-running stream, and in it a small white church with a spire and a gilt weathercock with a bird on it. Then,” he continued rapidly, “I can see the house where I am going to live, with the Pasteur Boiset, an old white house with woods above and all about it, and the beautiful lake beneath, and beyond, a great mountain. There is a tree in the garden opposite the front door, like a big cherry tree, only the fruit looks larger than cherries,” he added with confidence.
“I suppose that no one showed you a photograph of the place?” she asked doubtfully, “for as it happens I know it. It is only about two miles from Lucerne by the short way through the woods. What is more, there is a tree with a delicious fruit, either a big cherry or a small plum, for I have eaten some of it several years ago.”
“No,” he answered, “no one. My father only told me that the name of the little village is Kleindorf. He wrote it on the label for my bag.”