"My theory, based on the evidence of the shots that were heard at midnight, demanded two shots--one which wounded the murderer at the time of his attack, and one fired at the time of the
nightmare. The evidence given by the Berniers before the examining magistrate was to the effect that only one shot had been heard.
My next
nightmare vision was a quiet street of the dead.
This was simple and clear, and yet, with cruel inconsistency, whenever he escaped from this
nightmare it was to suffer and cry out at the vision of Ona starving.
There was another half-hour to wait, another half-hour of a
nightmare, which might drive me mad.
The end of the
nightmare was not altogether according to Inspector Jacks' expectations.
'I had the misfortune to scream in my sleep, owing to a frightful
nightmare. I'm sorry I disturbed you.'
Why did you not at once rid yourself of that abominable
nightmare?"
We were not a
nightmare here, where were civilization and intelligence in place of Spanish and Italian superstition, dirt and dread of cholera.
The next morning he felt so harassed with the
nightmare of consequences-- he dreaded so much the immediate issues before him--that seeing while he breakfasted the arrival of the Riverston coach, he went out hurriedly and took his place on it, that he might be relieved, at least for a day, from the necessity of doing or saying anything in Middlemarch.
I come up, after having fallen asleep myself, below, and find you in your wrapper here, with the
nightmare. Affery, woman,' said Mr Flintwinch, with a friendly grin on his expressive countenance, 'if you ever have a dream of this sort again, it'll be a sign of your being in want of physic.
The days and nights of torture that the young woman suffered were so merged into one long, unbroken
nightmare of hideousness that she soon lost all track of time.
Among all the incidents of the day, one recurred to his mind to the exclusion of the rest; although now that his self-control was regained, and he was no longer under the influence of a
nightmare, he was able to think of it calmly.
