It was strange that a man who had abandoned hopes should still be haunted by fears--like everything else in the world, this is unjust.

For a little while, five or ten minutes, not more than ten, I would let my mind dwell on that thought, trying to dig down to its roots which doubtless drew their strength from the foetid slime of human superstition, trying to behold its topmost branches where they waved in sparkling light.

No, that was not the theory; I must imagine those invisible branches as grim skeletons of whitened wood, standing stirless in that atmosphere of overwhelming night.
So I sat myself in a chair, placing the medicine glass with the draught of bane upon the table before me, and, to make sure that I did not exceed the ten minutes, near to it my travelling clock.

As I sat thus I fell into a dream or vision.

I seemed to see myself standing upon the world, surrounded by familiar sights and sounds.