no need," and his hands dropped to his side. "Great heavens! And here have I been living this life of torture, hiding away like a criminal, cursed by the horror of the crime, doubly accursed by the drink I have taken to drown my thoughts of being haunted by that man."
"And all imagination."
"Yes, and all imagination. Doctor, I have done my penance. Something must have brought me here to-day. I don't know what; but I felt that you would cure me."
"More imagination, man," I said.
"No, sir, you are wrong there, for you—have—cured———"
He reeled, and would have fallen, had not I guided him on to the sofa, where he lay insensible for a few minutes while I bathed his face, my own agony of mind returning respecting the action of the potent drug.
At last he opened his eyes, and looked wonderingly about him. Then recollection seemed to return, and he caught my hand in his.
"God bless you, doctor!" he cried, and the tears stood in his eyes. Then, after a pause, during which I watched him keenly, "I'm weak and faint. Give me a glass of something."
"Brandy?" I said bitterly.
He shuddered.
"Never again," he said fervently. "You doctors have something else."
I mixed a little stimulating medicine, which he drank with avidity, and then rose.
"Thank you, doctor," he said, with a faint smile. "You've laid the ghost. There: I think I'll go."
"No," I said, "be still for an hour or two. I want to watch your case a little longer."
"A very serious case, darling."
"I am your patient, doctor," he replied, with his whole manner changed; and he lay there till quite late before he left, shaking my hand warmly, and saying that he would come again.
But I could not rest without seeing him to his lodgings, where I stayed till midnight, and then went home more anxious than I can tell.
"A very serious case, darling," I said to my wife, in answer to her queries. "Don't talk to me; I am worn out."
But, weary at heart, I could not sleep for thinking of the preparation this man had taken. I was worried and troubled as to the effect it had produced, and, sooth to say, sanguine as I had been over my discovery, I could trace none. Of course I did not expect to work a cure as by a miracle, still I did expect to have discovered some action on the part of the drug.
The next morning I was with him early, and still I could see nothing consequent upon the swallowing of the involuntary draught. But he was better, far better, and he welcomed me with eagerness.
"Doctor," he said, as I was going away, "no disrespect to you, but there's more in mind than in medicine; you've worked a marvellous cure."
I had; for in a month he was quite another man.
As to my new discovery, I went no farther, and maturer study and greater experience have taught me that I was over sanguine, and by no means so clever as I thought.
