The Dream Woman, in four narratives. Dramatis Personae – Mr. Percy Fairbanks, an English gentleman; Mrs. Fairbanks, his wife; Alicia Warlock, the dream woman; Francis Raven, the groom; Riggobaud, a servant; M. Bernell, proprietor of a vineyard. The scene partly in England and partly in France.

First narrative – conducted by Percy Fairbanks, an English gentleman who resides the greater part of the time in Farleigh Hall, England, but is obliged, in connection with his business, to make occasional visits to France. Mr. Fairbanks is traveling with his wife at the time the scene opens. One of his horses has fallen lame on the road, and what is to be done? They look around them, but see no signs of human habitation. There is a hill before; they ride to the top of this and see a town on the other side; it is the town of Underbridge, composed of one muddy street on which is situated the Eagle Inn. Leaving him in charge of the horses, Mrs. Fairbanks saunters down the yard, opens the door and peeps in.

Mr. Fairbanks is on the point of calling the hostler, when he hears Mrs. Fairbanks's voice. Mrs. Fairbanks, it seems, has opened the last door at the end of the yard, and there she sees a strange sight – a dingy stable, and in one corner horses munching hay, and in another a man breathing convulsively. She calls to him, ‘Wake up! Wake up!’ but he only stirs restlessly in his sleep. While she watches him he mutters as if some vision was passing across his troubled brain.

‘Fair hair, with yellow in it; gray eyes with a droop in the left eyelid; little hands pinned around the nails; a knife with a buckhorn handle – murder, murder!’ Then he stops and grows restless.