ection, which I think
that I may without exaggeration describe as the best in Europe."

And so no doubt it was. He had a huge, oaken cabinet arranged in
shallow drawers, and here, neatly ticketed and classified, were beetles
from every corner of the earth, black, brown, blue, green, and mottled.
Every now and then as he swept his hand over the lines and lines of
impaled insects he would catch up some rare specimen, and, handling it
with as much delicacy and reverence as if it were a precious relic, he
would hold forth upon its peculiarities and the circumstances under
which it came into his possession. It was evidently an unusual thing
for him to meet with a sympathetic listener, and he talked and talked
until the spring evening had deepened into night, and the gong
announced that it was time to dress for dinner. All the time Lord
Linchmere said nothing, but he stood at his brother-in-law's elbow, and
I caught him continually shooting curious little, questioning glances
into his face. And his own features expressed some strong emotion,
apprehension, sympathy, expectation: I seemed to read them all. I was
sure that Lord Linchmere was fearing something and awaiting something,
but what that something might be I could not imagine.

The evening passed quietly but pleasantly, and I should have been
entirely at my ease if it had not been for that continual sense of
tension upon the part of Lord Linchmere. As to our host, I found that
he improved upon acquaintance. He spoke constantly with affection of
his absent wife, and also of his little son, who had recently been sent
to school. The house, he said, was not the same without them. If it
were not for his scientific studies, he did not know how he could get
through the days. After dinner we smoked for some time in the
billiard-room, and finally went early to bed.

And then it was that, for the first time, the suspicion that Lord
Linchmere was a lunatic crossed my mind. He followed me into my
bedroom, when our host had retired.

"Doctor," said he, speaking in a low, hurried voice, "you must come
with me. You must spend the night in my bedroom."

"What do you mean?"

"I prefer not to explain. But this is part of your duties. My room is
close by, and you can return to your own before the servant calls you
in the morning."

"But why?" I asked.

"Because I am nervous of being alone," said he. "That's the reason,
since you must have a reason."

It seemed r