But what a blind fool I have been!  In my enthusiasm over my research I have walked straight into the pit, although it lay gaping before me.  Did she not herself warn me?  Did she not tell me, as I can read in my own journal, that when she has acquired power over a subject she can make him do her will?  And she has acquired that power over me.  I am for the moment at the beck and call of this creature with the crutch.  I must come when she wills it.  I must do as she wills.  Worst of all, I must feel as she wills.  I loathe her and fear her, yet, while I am under the spell, she can doubtless make me love her.

There is some consolation in the thought, then, that those odious impulses for which I have blamed myself do not really come from me at all.  They are all transferred from her, little as I could have guessed it at the time.  I feel cleaner and lighter for the thought.

April 8.  Yes, now, in broad daylight, writing coolly and with time for reflection, I am compelled to confirm every thing which I wrote in my journal last night.  I am in a horrible position, but, above all, I must not lose my head.  I must pit my intellect against her powers.  After all, I am no silly puppet, to dance at the end of a string.  I have energy, brains, courage.  For all her devil’s tricks I may beat her yet.  May!  I must, or what is to become of me?

Let me try to reason it out!  This woman, by her own explanation, can dominate my nervous organism.  She can project herself into my body and take command of it.  She has a parasite soul; yes, she is a parasite, a monstrous parasite.  She creeps into my frame as the hermit crab does into the whelk’s shell.  I am powerless What can I do?  I am dealing with forces of which I know nothing.  And I can tell no one of my trouble.  They would set me down as a madman.  Certainly, if it got noised abroad, the university would say that they had no need of a devil-ridden professor.  And Agatha!  No, no, I must face it alone.

III

I read over my notes of what the woman said when she spoke about her powers.  There is one point which fills me with dismay.  She implies that when the influence is slight the subject knows what he is doing, but cannot control himself, whereas when it is strongly exerted he is absolutely unconscious.  Now, I have always known what I did, though less so last night than on the previous occasions.  That seems to mean that she has never yet exerted her full powers upon me.  Was ever a man so placed before?

Yes, perhaps there was, and very near me, too.  Charles Sadler must know something of this!  His vague words of warning take a meaning now.  Oh, if I had only listened to him then, before I helped by these repeated sittings to forge the links of the chain which binds me!  But I will see him to-day.  I will apologize to him for having treated his warning so lightly.  I will see if he can advise me.