f irresistible merriment. My
passion at this rose to such a pitch, that had he been a man of any
appearance I should have knocked him down; but I could not think of
resorting to such an extremity with a meagre, little elderly fellow, who
had, moreover, a wooden leg. I could, therefore, only wait till his
mirth subsided, when I demanded, with as much calmness as I could
assume, what I had lost.

"Are you sure you have not lost your body?" said he.

"My body!" answered I with some surprise; "what do you mean?"

"Now, my dear friend, tell me plainly, are you sure that this is your
own body?"

"My own body--who the devil's can it be?"

"Are you sure you are yourself?"

"Myself--who, in heaven's name, could I be but myself?"

"Ay, that is the rub," continued he; "are you perfectly satisfied that
you are yourself, and nobody but yourself?" I could not help smiling at
the apparent stupidity of this question; but before I was able to
compose myself, he had resumed his query.--"Are you sure you are--that
you are--"

"That I am who?" said I, hurriedly.

"That you are Frederick Stadt?"

"Perfectly."

"And not Albert Wolstang?" concluded he.

A pang shot through my whole body at this last part of his question. I
recalled in an instant all my previous vexation. I remembered the
insults I had met with, not only from the students of Gottingen and
Doctor Dedimus Dunderhead, but from the domestics of Wolstang; and
lastly, I recollected the business which had brought me to the house of
the latter. Everything came as a flash of lightning through my brain,
and I was more perplexed than ever. My first impression was, that the
little man, in spite of his vast learning, was insane, or perhaps, as
Festus said of Paul, his madness was the consequence of too much
learning; but then, if he was insane, the Gottingen students must be
insane, Doctor Dedimus Dunderhead must be insane, and Wolstang's
domestics must be insane. "I am perhaps insane myself," thought I for an
instant; but this idea, I was soon satisfied, was incorrect. I sat for
several minutes pondering deeply upon the matter, and endeavouring to
extricate myself from this vexatious dilemma, while my companion
opposite kept eyeing me through his immense glasses, stroking his chin,
and smiling with the most lugubrious self-complacency. At length,
arousing myself from my stupor, I put the following question to him:--

"Did you ask me if I was sure that I am not Wolstang?"