However, I refrained from making this protest audibly. I judged
she was only going according to the ritual; and as she had a
printed card, with blanks in it ready to be filled out with details
regarding the remote members of the family connection, I humored
her along.

When I could not remember something she wished to know concerning
an ancestor I supplied her with thrilling details culled from the
field of fancy. When the card was entirely filled up she sent me
back to my old place to wait. I waited and waited, breeding fresh
ailments all the time. I had started out with one symptom; now if
I had one I had a million and a half. I could feel goose flesh
sprouting out all over me. If I had been taller I might have had
more, but not otherwise. Such is the power of the human imagination
when the surroundings are favorable to its development.

Time passed; to me it appeared that nearly all the time there was
passed and that we were getting along toward the shank-end of the
Christian era mighty fast. I was afraid my turn would come next
and afraid it would not. Perhaps you know this sensation. You
get it at the dentist's, and when you are on the list of after-dinner
speakers at a large banquet, and when you are waiting for the
father of the Only Girl in the World to make up his mind whether
he is willing to try to endure you as a son-in-law.

Then some more time passed.

One by one my companions, obeying a command, passed out through
the door at the back, vanishing out of my life forever. None of
them returned. I was vaguely wondering whether Doctor Z buried