Adolphe understood the message of that little shoe: the frown faded from his face, leaving on it only an expression of supernal gloom; he looked at the eighteen purses, scratched his nose, and coughed. Then he gazed at Theophrastus and said in very solemn tones: "What has just happened, Theophrastus, is not natural. We must try to find the explanation of it; we must force ourselves to find the explanation. It's no use shutting our eyes; we must open them, as wide as we can, to the misfortune, if it is misfortune, in order to battle with it." "What misfortune?" said Theophrastus, suddenly becoming his timid self again, and catching distressfully at Marceline's hand. "It's always a misfortune to have other people's property in one's pocket," said Adolphe gloomily. "And what else is there in the pockets of conjurors?" cried Theophrastus with fresh violence. "And conjurors are very honest men; and Theophrastus Longuet is a very honest man! _By the throttle of Madame Phalaris_, he is!" He shouted this out; then fell back exhausted in his chair. There was a gloomy silence. Presently he sat up again, and with tears in his eyes said plaintively: "I feel that Adolphe is right. I am threatened by some great misfortune and I don't know what it is--I don't know what it is!" He burst into tears; and Marceline and Adolphe strove in vain to comfort him. But after a while he dried his tears, grasped a hand of either, and said in a firmer voice: "Swear--swear never to abandon me _whatever happens_." They promised in all good faith; and the assurance seemed to cheer him a little. Then Adolphe asked him to let him see the document again; and he fetched it. Adolphe spread it out before him and studied it intently. Presently he nodded his head sagely and said: "Do you ever dream, Theophrastus?" "Do I ever dream? Well, I suppose I do sometimes. But my digestion is so good that I hardly ever remember my dreams." "Never?" persisted Adolphe. "Oh, I couldn't go so far as to say never," said Theophrastus. "In fact, I remember having dreamt four or five times in my life. I remember it because I always woke up at the same point in the dream; and it was always the same dream. But how on earth does it affect this business which is worrying us?" "Dreams have never been explained by Science," said Adolphe solemnly. "It fancies that it has said everything when it has ascribed them to the effect of the imagination. But it gives us no explanation of the quite clear and distinct visions we sometimes have which have nothing whatever to do with the events or preoccupations of the previous day. In particular how are we to account for those visions of actually existing things which one has never seen in the waking state, things of which one has never even thought? Who will dare to say that they are not retrospective visions of events which have taken place before our present existence?"