I had the impression that everything was misty and nacreous around me, with multifarious and indistinct apparitions, amongst whom however was one figure that stood out fairly clearly which was that of a young man whose too-long neck in itself seemed to proclaim the character at once cowardly and quarrelsome of the individual.
The ribbon of his hat had been replaced by a piece of plaited string. Later he was having an argument with a person whom I couldn't see and then, as if suddenly afraid, he threw himself into the shadow of a corridor.
Another part of the dream showed him walking in bright sunshine in front of the gare Saint-Lazare. He was with a companion who was saying:
"You ought to have another button put on your overcoat."
Whereupon I woke up.
How tightly packed in we were on that bus platform!
And how stupid and ridiculous that young man looked!
And what was he doing? Well, if he wasn't actually trying to pick a quarrel with
a chap who--so he claimed! the young fop!
kept on pushing him! And then he didn't find anything better to do than to rush
off and grab a seat which had become free!
Instead of leaving it for a lady!
Two hours after, guess whom I met in front of the gare Saint-Lazare!
The same fancypants!
Being given some sartorial advice! By a friend!
You'd never believe it!
ONE DAY I HAPPEND TO BE ON THE PLATFORM OF A VIOLET BUS.
THERE WAS A RATHER RIDICULOUS YOUNG MAN ON IT-INDIGO NECK,
CORD ROUND HIT HAT.
ALL OF A SUDDEN HE STARTED TO REMONSTRATE WITH A BLUE MAN.
HE CHARGED HIM IN PARTICULAR, IN A GREEN VOICE, WITH JOSTLING
HIM EVERY TIME ANYBODY GOT OFF. HAVING SAID THIS, HE RUSHED
HEADLONG TOWARD A YELLOW SEAT AND SAT DOWN ON IT.
TWO HOURS LATER I SAW HIM IN FRONT OF AN ORANGE-COLORED STATION.
HE WAS WITH A FRIEND WHO WAS ADVISING HIM TO HAVE ANOTHER
BUTTON PUT ON HIS RED OVERCOAT.
I don't really know where it happened...
in a church, a dustbin, a charnel-house? A bus, perhaps?
There were...
but what were there, though? Eggs, carpets, radishes? Skeletons?
Yes, but with their flesh still round them, and alive. I think that's how it
was. People in a bus.
But one (or two?) of them was making himself conspicuous, I don't really know in what way. For his megalomania? For his adiposty? For his melancholy? Rather...more precisely...for his youth, which was embellished by a long...
nose? chin? thumb?
no: neck, and by a strange, strange, strange hat. He started to quarrel, yes, that's right, with, no doubt, another passenger (man or woman? child
or old age pensioner?) This ended, this finished by ending in a commonplace sort of way, probably by the flight of one of the two adversaries.
I rather think that it was the same character I met, but where?
In front of a church? in front of a charnel-house? in front of a dustbin?
With a friend who must have been talking to him about something, but about what? about what?
about what?
