It may be asked if it is not subversive of discipline for the hotel
_habitue_ to become too easy-going. There is doubtless a limit to the
virtue of allowing ourselves to be imposed upon, but there is little fear
that the individual who opens the question will err in this direction. It
behooves him rather to consider the danger of his occupying the unenviable
position of the "fuss-budget."






XIV.

THE FEAR OF BECOMING INSANE

We must be steadfast, Julian! Satan is very busy in all of us.

IBSEN: _Emperor and Galilean_.





Few, perhaps, among the high-strung and delicately organized can truly say
that this fear has never occurred to them. It affects even children, at an
age when their minds are supposed to be taken up with the pleasures and
pursuits appropriate to their years. This fear is generally dispelled by
the serious occupations of life, but in certain cases it persists as an
insistent and compelling thought.