Page:Carroll - Sylvie and Bruno Concluded.djvu/136

98 What was to be done? Had the falry-life been merged in the real life? Or was Lady Muriel 'eerie' also, and thus able to enter into the fairy-world along with me? The words were on my lips ("I see an old friend of mine in the lane: if you don't know him, may I introduce him to you?") when the strangest thing of all happened: Lady Muriel spoke.

"I see an old friend of mine in the lane," she said: "If you don't know him, may I introduce him to you?"

I seemed to wake out of a dream: for the 'eerie' feeling was still strong upon me, and the figure outside seemed to be changing at every moment, like one of the shapes in a kaleidoscope: now he was the Professor, and now he was somebody else! By the time he had reached the gate, he certainly was somebody else: and I felt that the proper course was for Lady Muriel, not for me, to introduce him. She greeted him kindly, and, opening the gate, admitted the venerable old mana German, obviouslywho looked about him with dazed eyes, as if he, too, had but just awaked from a dream!