this you promise me?"

"Certainly, Mr. Marston; I have neither the disposition nor the right to
withhold such a promise," answered the physician.

"Well, then, I will first tell you the arrangement I propose, with your
permission, to make, and then I shall answer all your questions,
respecting my own case," resumed Marston, gloomily. "I wish to place
myself under your care, to live under your roof, reserving my full
liberty of action. I must be free to come and to go as I will; and on the
other hand, I undertake that you shall find me an amenable and docile
patient enough. In addition, I stipulate that there shall be no attempt
whatever made to communicate with those who are connected with me: these
terms agreed upon, I place myself in your hands. You will find in me, as
I said before, a deferential patient, and I trust not a troublesome one.
I hope you will excuse my adding, that I shall myself pay the charge of
my sojourn here from week to week, in advance."

The proposed arrangement was a strange one; and although Dr. Parkes
dimly foresaw some of the embarrassments which might possibly arise
from his accepting it, there was yet so much that was reasonable as
well as advantageous in the proposal, that he could not bring himself
to decline it.

The preliminary arrangement concluded, Dr. Parkes proceeded to his more
strictly professional investigation. It is, of course, needless to
recapitulate the details of Marston's tormenting fancies, with which the
reader has indeed been already sufficiently acquainted. Doctor Parkes,
having attentively listened to the narrative, and satisfied himself as to
the physical health of his patient, was still sorely puzzled as to the
probable issue of the awful struggle already but too obviously commenced
between the mind and its destroyer in the strange case before him. One
satisfactory symptom unquestionably was, the as yet transitory nature of
the delusion, and the evident and energetic tenacity with which reason
contended for her vital ascendancy. It was a case, however, which for
many reasons sorely perplexed him, but of which, notwithstanding, he was
disposed, whether rightly or wrongly the reader will speedily see, to
take by no means a decidedly gloomy view.

Having disburdened his mind of this horrible secret, Marston felt for a
time a sense of relief amounting almost to elation. With far less of
apprehension and dismay than he had done so for months before, he that
night re