Edward heard this with the emotions of a man reprieved, if not from the gallows, at least from transportation. What has happened? cried he. Is it possible we have both changed, only in opposite directions? Ah, I know! You have been in the woods. Something there has touched you.
You'd better shut your big trap, said she almost angrily. You don't know what the hell you're talking about
I know, said he, that these feelings can be very delicate and private ones; vague gropings that one prefers not to discuss. For example, I think you would not have felt what you felt today had I been there. My presence on Monday was a mistake, much as I hoped to share these sensations with you. In future you shall go alone.
So thereafter she went every afternoon alone into the woods, and Edward remained at home, and every day she came back smiling more sweetly than before.
The woods are working for me, thought Edward, and his imagination followed her like a dog. He seemed to see her in the dappled sun and shade under the great trees, or paddling in the brook, or fanning herself with a fern frond, or staining her mouth with blackberries. Finally he felt he could live no longer without seeing these pretty things with his own eyes, so one afternoon he slyly followed her among the trees.
He kept a good way behind her, thinking to come up quietly when she stopped to rest, but instead of stopping she went on faster and faster, and at last broke into a run, and for a while he lost her altogether. He pressed on to where he heard a jay scolding in the distance, and when he got there he looked all around, but saw no sign of her. Suddenly he heard her laugh. She must have seen me all the time! he thought.
Her laugh had a low, sweet, inviting quality that made his heart beat fast. It came from a little dell near by, where the ground fell away at the wood's edge. Edward stepped softly to the upper edge of this dell, half-expecting, yet not daring to expect, that he'd see her there looking up at him, and with her arms spread wide. He parted the twigs and looked down. She was there indeed, and her arms were spread wide, but it was the better to embrace Edward's corpulent and detested neighbour.
Edward walked quietly away, and returned to the cottage. There he awaited Susie, who came back very late, and smiling more sweetly than ever.
You may take that smile off your face, said Edward. You dirty, double-crossing little harlot .
She at once obliged him in the matter of the smile. Why, you low-down, snooping bastard, she began, and the conversation continued with the utmost vivacity. Edward so far forgot himself as to utter a threat or two, which she treated with the most galling derision, as if secure in the protection of her paramour.
He's got a big film company up in London, she said, and he's promised to put me in a picture.
You forget, said Edward, that I happen to hold your contract.
You mean to say you'd stop me?
Why not?
Because I'm going to the cops right now, said Susie. And do you know what I'm going to tell 'em? About when I was asleep? She was about to supply the information when she was interrupted by an enormous yawn.
Edward glanced at his watch, and saw that the hour of six had long ago slipped by unnoticed.
Well? said he. What?
Enough to put you in jail for she muttered, in a voice like a slowing phonograph record, and she yawned again. Her head drooped down and down till her cheek rested on the table.
Pleasant dreams! said Edward, and taking the little box of capsules from the mantelpiece, he pitched it into the fire. Susie observed this operation with a glazing eye. A little flame of fury flickered up in it to match the leaping flame on the hearth. It died, and the eye closed. She looked ravishing.
Edward put her to bed, and came downstairs and wrote a letter to a firm that advertised motor caravans and trailers. Next summer he was at Blackpool, in a spotless white coat, addressing the multitude from under a sign that read:
THE SLEEPING BEAUTY
_Dr. von Stangelberg presents
the Wonder of Modem Science
Adults only._
THE SLEEPING BEAUTY
Admission sixpence.
They say he is rapidly recovering his fortune.
INTERPRETATION OF A DREAM
A young man entered the office of a well-known psychiatrist, whom he addressed as follows: Doctor, save me!
By all means, responded the mind specialist suavely. After all, that is what I am here for.
But you can't, cried the young man distractedly. You can't! You can't! Nothing can save me!
At all events, said the psychiatrist soothingly, it will do no harm to talk it over.
With that he waved his hands a little, smiled with a rather soapy and ingratiating expression, and before he knew it the young man was seated in a deep armchair, with his face to the light, pouring out his story.
My name, said he, is Charles Rotifer. I am employed in the office of an accountant, who occupies the top storey of this skyscraper. I am twenty-eight years of age, single, engaged to be married. My fiance is the best and dearest girl in the world, beautiful as an angel, and with lovely golden hair. I mention this because it is relevant to my story.
It is indeed, said the psychiatrist. Gold is a symbol of money. Have you a retentive attitude toward money? For example, you say you are employed in an office. Have you saved anything considerable out of your salary?
Yes, I have, replied the young man. I've saved quite a bit
Please continue, Mr. Rotifer, said the psychiatrist, benevolently. You were speaking of your fiance. Later on I shall have to ask you one or two rather intimate questions on that subject
And I will answer them, returned the young man. There is nothing in our relationship that needs to be concealed at all events from a psychologist. All is complete harmony between us, and there is nothing about her that I could wish altered, except perhaps her little habit of gesturing rather too freely as she speaks.
I will make a note of that, said the other, scribbling on his pad.
It is not of the least importance, said the young man. I hardly know why I mentioned it, except to indicate how perfect she is. But, Doctor, thirty-eight nights ago I dreamed a dream.
Thirty-eight, indeed! observed the mind doctor, jotting down the figure. Tell me frankly, when you were an infant, did you by any chance have a nurse, a teacher or a female relative, on whom perhaps you might have had a little fixation, who happened to be thirty-eight years of age?
No, Doctor, said the young man, but there are thirty-nine floors to this skyscraper.
The psychiatrist gave him a penetrating glance. And does the form and height of this building suggest anything to you?
All I know, said the young man obstinately, is that I dreamed I was outside the window of our office at the top, in the air, falling.
Falling! said the psychiatrist, raising his eyebrows. And what were your sensations at that moment?
I was calm, replied the young man. I imagine I was falling at the normal rate, but my mind seemed to work very fast I had leisure to reflect, to look around me. The view was superb. In a moment I had reached the ornamental stonework which separates our windows from those immediately below. Then I woke up.
And that simple, harmless, perfectly ordinary little dream has been preying on your mind? asked the psychiatrist in a jocular tone. Well, my dear sir
Wait a moment, said his visitor. On the following night I dreamed the same dream, or rather, a continuation of it. There I was, spread-eagled in mid-air like this passing the ornamental stone-work, looking into the window of the floor below, which is also occupied by our firm. I saw my friend, Don Straker, of our tax department, bending over his desk. He looked up. He saw me. His face took on an expression of the utmost astonishment. He made a movement as if to rise from his seat, no doubt to rush to the window. But compared with mine, his movements were indescribably slow. I remember thinking, 'He will be too late.' Then I dropped below his window, and down to the dividing line between that floor and the next. As I did so, I woke.