_ acute;
because the clatter of the servants' knives at the other end of the
house inflames him to madness; because his excited palate can no longer
endure any food but the subtlest delicacies; because Hester Dyett is
able from the posture in which he sits to conjecture that he is
intoxicated; because, in fact, he is on the brink of the dreadful
malady which physicians call "_General Paralysis of the Insane_." You
remember I took from your hands the newspaper containing the earl's
letter to Cibras, in order to read it with my own eyes. I had my
reasons, and I was justified. That letter contains three mistakes in
spelling: "here" is printed "hear," "pass" appears as "pas," and "room"
as "rume." Printers' errors, you say? But not so--one might be, two in
that short paragraph could hardly be, three would be impossible. Search
the whole paper through, and I think you will not find another. Let us
reverence the theory of probabilities: the errors were the writer's,
not the printer's. General Paralysis of the Insane is known to have
this effect on the writing. It attacks its victims about the period of
middle age--the age at which the deaths of all the Orvens who died
mysteriously occurred. Finding then that the dire heritage of his
race--the heritage of madness--is falling or fallen on him, he summons
his son from India. On himself he passes sentence of death: it is the
tradition of the family, the secret vow of self-destruction handed down
through ages from father to son. But he must have aid: in these days it
is difficult for a man to commit the suicidal act without
detection--and if madness is a disgrace to the race, equally so is
suicide. Besides, the family is to be enriched by the insurances on his
life, and is thereby to be allied with royal blood; but the money will
be lost if the suicide be detected. Randolph therefore returns and
blossoms into a popular candidate.

'For a time he is led to abandon his original plans by the appearance
of Maude Cibras; he hopes that _she_ may be made to destroy the earl;
but when she fails him, he recurs to it--recurs to it all suddenly, for
Lord Pharanx's condition is rapidly becoming critical, patent to all
eyes, could any eye see him--so much so that on the last day none of
the servants are allowed to enter his room. We must therefore regard
Cibras as a mere addendum to, an extraneous element in, the tragedy,
not as an integral part of it. She did not shoot the noble lord, for
sh