CHAPTER XVI.
WHAT THE ASIKA SHOWED ALAN It seemed to Alan that he went to sleep and dreamed.
He dreamed that it was late autumn in England.

Leaves drifted down from the trees beneath the breath of a strong, damp wind, and ran or floated along the road till they vanished into a ditch, or caught against a pile of stones that had been laid ready for its repair.

He knew the road well enough; he even knew the elm tree beneath which he seemed to stand on the crest of a hill.

It was that which ran from Mr.Champers-Haswell's splendid house, The Court, to the church; he could see them both, the house to the right, the church to the left, and his eyesight seemed to have improved, since he was able to observe that at either place there was bustle and preparation as though for some big ceremony.
Now the big gates of The Court opened and through them came a funeral.
It advanced toward him with unnatural swiftness, as though it floated upon air, the whole melancholy procession of it.

In a few seconds it had come and gone and yet during those seconds he suffered agony, for there arose in his mind a horrible terror that this was Barbara's burying.