“I, myself, am that patient, sir,” said Marston, with an effort; “your surmise is right.  I am not mad, but unequivocally menaced with madness; it is not to be mistaken.  Sir, there is no misunderstanding the tremendous and intolerable signs that glare upon my mind.”

“And pray, sir, have you consulted your friends or your family upon the course best to be pursued?” inquired Dr. Parkes, with grave interest.

“No, sir,” he answered sharply, and almost fiercely; “I have no fancy to make myself the subject of a writ de lunatico inquirendo; I don’t want to lose my liberty and my property at a blow.  The course I mean to take has been advised by no one but myself—­is known to no other.  I now disclose it, and the causes of it, to you, a gentleman, and my professional adviser, in the expectation that you will guard with the strictest secrecy my spontaneous revelations; this you promise me?”

“Certainly, Mr. Marston; I have neither the disposition nor the right to withhold such a promise,” answered the physician.

“Well, then, I will first tell you the arrangement I propose, with your permission, to make, and then I shall answer all your questions, respecting my own case,” resumed Marston, gloomily.  “I wish to place myself under your care, to live under your roof, reserving my full liberty of action.  I must be free to come and to go as I will; and on the other hand, I undertake that you shall find me an amenable and docile patient enough.  In addition, I stipulate that there shall be no attempt whatever made to communicate with those who are connected with me:  these terms agreed upon, I place myself in your hands.  You will find in me, as I said before, a deferential patient, and I trust not a troublesome one.  I hope you will excuse my adding, that I shall myself pay the charge of my sojourn here from week to week, in advance.”

The proposed arrangement was a strange one; and although Dr. Parkes dimly foresaw some of the embarrassments which might possibly arise from his accepting it, there was yet so much that was reasonable as well as advantageous in the proposal, that he could not bring himself to decline it.

The preliminary arrangement concluded, Dr. Parkes proceeded to his more strictly professional investigation.  It is, of course, needless to recapitulate the details of Marston’s tormenting fancies, with which the reader has indeed been already sufficiently acquainted.  Doctor Parkes, having attentively listened to the narrative, and satisfied himself as to the physical health of his patient, was still sorely puzzled as to the probable issue of the awful struggle already but too obviously commenced between the mind and its destroyer in the strange case before him.  One satisfactory symptom unquestionably was, the as yet transitory nature of the delusion, and the evident and energetic tenacity with which reason contended for her vital ascendancy.  It was a case, however, which for many reasons sorely perplexed him, but of which, notwithstanding, he was disposed, whether rightly or wrongly the reader will speedily see, to take by no means a decidedly gloomy view.