The walks shrunk into stripes again at the sound, and raising himself a little in the bed, and holding the curtain open with one hand, he looked out.
The same room certainly, and still by candlelight; but with what unbounded astonishment did he see all those bottles, and basins, and articles of linen airing by the fire, and such-like furniture of a sick chamber--all very clean and neat, but all quite different from anything he had left there, when he went to bed! The atmosphere, too, filled with a cool smell of herbs and vinegar; the floor newly sprinkled; the--the what?
The Marchioness?
Yes; playing cribbage with herself at the table.

There she sat, intent upon her game, coughing now and then in a subdued manner as if she feared to disturb him--shuffling the cards, cutting, dealing, playing, counting, pegging--going through all the mysteries of cribbage as if she had been in full practice from her cradle! Mr Swiveller contemplated these things for a short time, and suffering the curtain to fall into its former position, laid his head on the pillow again.
'I'm dreaming,' thought Richard, 'that's clear.

When I went to bed, my hands were not made of egg-shells; and now I can almost see through 'em.

If this is not a dream, I have woke up, by mistake, in an Arabian Night, instead of a London one.

But I have no doubt I'm asleep.