Transcribed from the 1908 Hurst and Blackett edition by David Price, email ccx074@pglaf.org
THE ANGEL AND THE AUTHOR
—AND OTHERS
by
JEROME K. JEROME
Author of
“Paul Kelver,” “Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow,” “The Passing
of the Third Floor Back,” and others.
london:
HURST AND BLACKETT, LIMITED
182, HIGH HOLBORN, W.C.
1908
CHAPTER I
I had a vexing dream one night, not long ago: it was about a fortnight after Christmas. I dreamt I flew out of the window in my nightshirt. I went up and up. I was glad that I was going up. “They have been noticing me,” I thought to myself. “If anything, I have been a bit too good. A little less virtue and I might have lived longer. But one cannot have everything.” The world grew smaller and smaller. The last I saw of London was the long line of electric lamps bordering the Embankment; later nothing remained but a faint luminosity buried beneath darkness. It was at this point of my journey that I heard behind me the slow, throbbing sound of wings.
I turned my head. It was the Recording Angel. He had a weary look; I judged him to be tired.
“Yes,” he acknowledged, “it is a trying period for me, your Christmas time.”