there that I must not be allowed to see? I think,
THE DREAM
175
my friends, that there was--Benedict Farley himself!"
He smiled at the blank faces.
"Yes, yes, it is not nonsense what I say. Why
could the Mr. Farley to whom I had been talking
not realize the difference between two totally dissimilar
letters? Because, roes amis, he was a man
of normal sight wearing a pair of very powerful
glasses. Thoseglasses would render a man of normal
eyesight practically blind. Isn't that so, doctor?''
Stillingfleet murmured, "That's somof course."
"Why did I feel that in talking to Mr. Farley I
was talking to a mountebank, to an actor playing
a part? Because he was playing a part! Consider
the setting. The dim room, the green shaded light
turned blindingly away from the figure in the
chair. What did I seemthe famous patchwork
dressing-gown, the beaked nose (faked with that
useful substance, nose putty), the white crest of hair, the powerful lenses concealing the eyes.
What evidence is there that Mr. Farley ever had a
dream? Only the story I was told and the evidence
of Mrs. Farley. What evidence is there that
Benedict Farley kept a revolver in his desk? Again
only the story told me and the word of Mrs. Farley.
Two people carried this fraud throughJMrs.
Farley and Hugo Cornworthy. Cornworthy wrote
the letter to me, gave instructions to the butler,
went out ostensibly to the cinema, but let himself