not wishing to betray a confidence by relaying a verbatim account of that evenings conversation , nor wishing to further bore an already patient reader with a full report of a monologue which lasted the best part of an hour in the telling , the substance of his words were that he had seen himself walking in the skies , free and unfettered like a simple bird ; not flying , not floating , not even wheeling himself in his chair , but walking , in the clouds , as effortlessly as you or i might walk along the road to our corner shop .