produce the fresh arguments which had occurred to him since his last
talk with the physician; but he feared his eagerness might be taken
for a symptom of derangement, and he affected to smile away Dr.
Stell's allusion.

"You think, then, it's a case of brain-fag--nothing more?"

"Nothing more. And I should advise you to knock off tobacco. You
smoke a good deal, don't you?"

He developed his treatment, recommending massage, gymnastics,
travel, or any form of diversion that did not--that in short--

Granice interrupted him impatiently. "Oh, I loathe all that--and I'm
sick of travelling."

"H'm. Then some larger interest--politics, reform, philanthropy?
Something to take you out of yourself."

"Yes. I understand," said Granice wearily.

"Above all, don't lose heart. I see hundreds of cases like yours,"
the doctor added cheerfully from the threshold.

On the doorstep Granice stood still and laughed. Hundreds of cases
like his--the case of a man who had committed a murder, who
confessed his guilt, and whom no one would believe! Why, there had
never been a case like it in the world. What a good figure Stell
would have made in a play: the great alienist who couldn't read a
man's mind any better than that!