"That is what you heard at his bedside?" I said.

"Literally and exactly what I heard," he answered--"except that the

repetitions are not transferred here from my short-hand notes. He

reiterated certain words and phrases a dozen times over, fifty times

over, just as he attached more or less importance to the idea which they

represented. The repetitions, in this sense, were of some assistance

to me in putting together those fragments. Don't suppose," he added,

pointing to the second sheet of paper, "that I claim to have reproduced

the expressions which Mr. Candy himself would have used if he had been

capable of speaking connectedly. I only say that I have penetrated

Advertisement..

through the obstacle of the disconnected expression, to the thought

which was underlying it connectedly all the time. Judge for yourself."

I turned to the second sheet of paper, which I now knew to be the key to

the first.

Once more, Mr. Candy's wanderings appeared, copied in black ink; the

intervals between the phrases being filled up by Ezra Jennings in

red ink. I reproduce the result here, in one plain form; the original

language and the interpretation of it coming close enough together in

these pages to be easily compared and verified.

"... Mr. Franklin Blake is clever and agreeable, but he wants taking

down a peg when he talks of medicine. He confesses that he has been

suffering from want of sleep at night. I tell him that his nerves are

out of order, and that he ought to take medicine. He tells me that

taking medicine and groping in the dark mean one and the same thing.

This before all the company at the dinner-table. I say to him, you are

groping after sleep, and nothing but medicine can help you to find it.

He says to me, I have heard of the blind leading the blind, and now I

know what it means. Witty--but I can give him a night's rest in spite of

his teeth. He really wants sleep; and Lady Verinder's medicine chest is

at my disposal. Give him five-and-twenty minims of laudanum to-night,

without his knowing it; and then call to-morrow morning. 'Well, Mr.

Blake, will you try a little medicine to-day? You will never sleep

without it.'--'There you are out, Mr. Candy: I have had an excellent

night's rest without it.' Then, come down on him with the truth! 'You

have had something besides an excellent night's rest; you had a dose

of laudanum, sir, before you went to bed. What do you say to the art of

medicine, now?'"




Most Popular