I sat with the papers in my hand completely stupefied.

“Try and forgive poor Mr. Candy,” said the assistant gently.  “He has done dreadful mischief, I own; but he has done it innocently.  If you will look at the notes, you will see that—­but for his illness—­he would have returned to Lady Verinder’s the morning after the party, and would have acknowledged the trick that he had played you.  Miss Verinder would have heard of it, and Miss Verinder would have questioned him—­and the truth which has laid hidden for a year would have been discovered in a day.”

I began to regain my self-possession.  “Mr. Candy is beyond the reach of my resentment,” I said angrily.  “But the trick that he played me is not the less an act of treachery, for all that.  I may forgive, but I shall not forget it.”

“Every medical man commits that act of treachery, Mr. Blake, in the course of his practice.  The ignorant distrust of opium (in England) is by no means confined to the lower and less cultivated classes.  Every doctor in large practice finds himself, every now and then, obliged to deceive his patients, as Mr. Candy deceived you.  I don’t defend the folly of playing you a trick under the circumstances.  I only plead with you for a more accurate and more merciful construction of motives.”

“How was it done?” I asked.  “Who gave me the laudanum, without my knowing it myself?”

“I am not able to tell you.  Nothing relating to that part of the matter dropped from Mr. Candy’s lips, all through his illness.  Perhaps your own memory may point to the person to be suspected.”

“No.”

“It is useless, in that case, to pursue the inquiry.  The laudanum was secretly given to you in some way.  Let us leave it there, and go on to matters of more immediate importance.  Read my notes, if you can.  Familiarise your mind with what has happened in the past.  I have something very bold and very startling to propose to you, which relates to the future.”

Those last words roused me.

I looked at the papers, in the order in which Ezra Jennings had placed them in my hands.  The paper which contained the smaller quantity of writing was the uppermost of the two.  On this, the disconnected words, and fragments of sentences, which had dropped from Mr. Candy in his delirium, appeared as follows: 

“...  Mr. Franklin Blake ... and agreeable ... down a peg ... medicine ... confesses ... sleep at night ... tell him ... out of order ... medicine ... he tells me ... and groping in the dark mean one and the same thing ... all the company at the dinner-table ...  I say ... groping after sleep ... nothing but medicine ... he says ... leading the blind ... know what it means ... witty ... a night’s rest in spite of his teeth ... wants sleep ...  Lady Verinder’s medicine chest ... five-and-twenty minims ... without his knowing it ... to-morrow morning ...  Well, Mr. Blake ... medicine to-day ... never ... without it ... out, Mr. Candy ... excellent ... without it ... down on him ... truth ... something besides ... excellent ... dose of laudanum, sir ... bed ... what ... medicine now.”