“You have all had these strange dreams which render you masters of the impossible, which open to you doors that cannot be passed through, unexpected joys, impenetrable arms?

“Which of us in these agitated, exciting, palpitating slumbers, has not held, clasped, embraced, possessed with an extraordinary acuteness of sensation, the woman with whom our minds were occupied?  And have you ever noticed what superhuman delight these good fortunes of dreams bestow upon us?  Into what mad intoxication they cast you! with what passionate spasms they shake you! and with what infinite, caressing, penetrating tenderness they fill your heart for her whom you hold fainting and hot in that adorable and bestial illusion which seems so like reality!

“All this I felt with unforgettable violence.  This woman was mine, so much mine that the pleasant warmth of her skin remained between my fingers, the odor of her skin remained in my brain, the taste of her kisses remained on my lips, the sound of her voice lingered in my ears, the touch of her clasp still clung to my side, and the burning charm of her tenderness still gratified my senses long after my exquisite but disappointing awakening.

“And three times the same night I had a renewal of my dream.

“When the day dawned she beset me, possessed me, haunted my brain and my flesh to such an extent that I no longer remained one second without thinking of her.

“At last, not knowing what to do, I dressed myself and went to see her.  As I went up the stairs to her apartment, I was so much overcome by emotion that I trembled, and my heart panted; I was seized with vehement desire from head to foot.

“I entered the apartment.  She rose up the moment she heard my name pronounced; and suddenly our eyes met in a fixed look of astonishment.

“I sat down.

“I uttered in a faltering tone some commonplaces which she seemed not to hear.  I did not know what to say or to do.  Then, abruptly, I flung myself upon her; seizing her with both arms; and my entire dream was accomplished so quickly, so easily, so madly, that I suddenly began to doubt whether I was really awake.  She was, after this, my mistress for two years.”

“What conclusion do you draw from it?” said a voice.

The story-teller seemed to hesitate.

“The conclusion I draw from it—­well, by Jove, the conclusion is that it was just a coincidence!  And, in the next place, who can tell?  Perhaps it was some glance of hers which I had not noticed and which came back that night to me—­one of those mysterious and unconscious evocations of memory which often bring before us things ignored by our own consciousness, unperceived by our minds!”

“Let that be just as you wish it,” said one of his table companions, when the story was finished, “but if you don’t believe in magnetism after that, you are an ungrateful fellow, my dear boy!”