Page:Marsh--The seen and the unseen.djvu/270

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THE SEEN AND THE UNSEEN

you with me." He paused, eyeing the other intently, and then added, "Under the peculiar circumstances I think, as a medical man, that I had better at once be frank with you. Mr. Groome, you have had a singular hallucination."

"Hallucination!" murmured Mr.——I will write it Groome. He did not seem to know what to make of things. Which was not strange. I did not know what to make of them either.

"Hallucination. You have just awoke from a state of cerebral unconsciousness. You have unwittingly and innocently acted the part of a double-minded gentleman. As you are possibly aware, Mr. Groome, the brain has two lobes—that is, divisions. These lobes sometimes, without their possessor knowing anything at all about it, work separately. While one works the other, so to speak, sleeps, and vice versâ. This is how the two lobes of your brain have treated you. Ordinarily you are—as you are—the gentleman whose acquaintance I have the honour of making, Mr. Groome. But while one lobe has been sleeping, the other lobe has insisted upon your being that very talented musician whose acquaintance I have also had the honour of making—Mr. Isaac Goad."