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Evening Star, Issue 2990, 18 September 1872, Page 4

Mr G, H. Lewes writes the following of Diokens ;—“ One night, after one of his public readings, he dpoamt that he was in a room where everyone was dressed in scarlet. (The probable origin of this was the mass of scarlet opera-cloaks worn by the ladies among the audience having left a sort of afterglow on his retina.) He stumbled against a lady standing with her hack towards him. As he apologised she turned her head 8 and said, quite unprovoked, ‘My name is Napier 1’ The face was one perfectly unknown to him, nor did hj e know anyone named Napier. Two days after, he had another reading in the same town, and before it began a lady friend came into the waiting-room, accompanied by an unknown lady in a scarlet opera-cloak, ‘who,’said his friend, ‘is very desirous of being introduced.’ ‘Not Miss Napier?’ he jokingly inquired. ‘Yes, Miss Napier.’ Although the face of his dream lady was not the face of this Miss Napier, the coincidence of the scarlet cloak and the name was striking.” '