And if it had not, the worst to be expected was a silly dream, followed perhaps by headache.

That is, unless I did not chance to wake up again at all in this world, which was a most unpleasant possibility.

Another thing, suppose I woke and she didn't! What should I say then?
Of a certainty I should find myself in the dock.

Yes, and there were further dreadful eventualities, quite conceivable, every one of them, the very thought of which plunged me into a cold perspiration and made me feel so weak that I was obliged to sit down.
Then I heard the gong; to me it sounded like the execution bell to a prisoner under sentence of death.

I crept downstairs feebly and found Lady Ragnall waiting for me in the drawing-room, clothed with gaiety as with a garment.