He knew the objects were there, but he could not quite appreciate their relative size and position.

The only real thing was his dream; all else was as vague as those far-off people and events that we lose in infancy and find again in old age.
Now there would be an end of dreaming; the fog would lift, and he must face the facts.

Jess, with whom he had dreamed, would go away to Europe and he would marry Bessie, and all this Pretoria business would glide away into the past like a watch in the night.

Well, it must be so; it was right and proper that it should be so, and he for one would not flinch from his duty; but he must have been more than human had he not felt the pang of awakening.

It was all so very unfortunate.
By this time Mouti had got up the horses, and asked if he was to inspan.
"No; wait a bit," said John.