After this I grew strangely sleepy.

The last thing I remember was Marie looking at me with her beautiful eyes, that were full--ah! so full of tender love, and kissing me again and again upon the lips.
I dreamed all sorts of dreams, rather pleasant dreams on the whole.
Then I woke up by degrees to find myself in an earthen pit shaped like a bottle and having the remains of polished sides to it.

It made me think of Joseph who was let down by his brethren into a well in the desert.
Now, who on earth could have let me down into a well, especially as I had no brethren?
Perhaps I was not really in a well.

Perhaps this was a nightmare.

Or I might be dead.