Possible Clues:

• *Bit of wishful thinking
• Fancy being fostered by a churchwarden?
• Hope that goes up in smoke?
• It's unlikely to be realized
• Unattainable hope
• Pie-in-the-sky hope
• Fanciful or impossible plan
• Smoker's fancy
• Fantasia for the organ? Unlikely hope!
• Dickens hero made out to be harbouring extremely reasonable but vain hope