you please? Were you
asleep, or what?"

By this time all our party gathered round the colonel, who held the
drawing. Narayan uttered an exclamation, and stood still, the very image
of bewilderment past description.

"I know the place!" said he, at last. "This is Dayri--Bol, the country
house of the Takur-Sahib. I know it. Last year during the famine I lived
there for two months."

I was the first to grasp the meaning of it all, but something prevented
me from speaking at once.

At last Mr. Y---- finished arranging and packing his things, and
approached us in his usual lazy, careless way, but his face showed
traces of vexation. He was evidently bored by our persistency in seeing
a sea, where there was nothing but the corner of a lake. But, at the
first sight of his unlucky sketch, his countenance suddenly changed.
He grew so pale, and the expression of his face became so piteously
distraught that it was painful to see. He turned and returned the piece
of Bristol board, then rushed like a madman to his drawing portfolio and
turned the whole contents out, ransacking and scattering over the sand
hundreds of sketches and of loose papers. Evidently failing to find
what he was looking for, he glanced again at his sea-view, and suddenly
covering his face with his hands totally collapsed.

We all remained silent, exchanging glances of wonder and pity, and
heedless of the Takur, who stood on the ferry boat, vainly calling to us
to join him.

"Look here, Y----!" timidly spoke the kind-hearted colonel, as if
addressing a sick child. "Are you sure you remember drawing this view?"

Mr. Y---- did not give any answer, as if gathering strength and thinking
it over. After a few moments he answered in hoarse and tremulous tones:

"Yes, I do remember. Of course I made this sketch, but I made it from
nature. I painted only what I saw. And it is that very certainty that
upsets me so."

"But why should you be upset, my dear fellow? Collect yourself! What
happened to you is neither shameful nor dreadful. It is only the result
of the temporary influence of one dominant will over another, less
powerful. You simply acted under 'biological influence,' to use the
expression of Dr. Carpenter."

"That is exactly what I am most afraid of.... I remember everything now.
I have been busy over this view more than an hour. I saw it directly
I chose the spot, and seeing it all the while on the opposite shore I
could not suspect anything uncann