ked me to sit down, that his express ion looked more composed,
though the paleness had not yet left his face. He thanked me for coming;
repeated that he had something very important to say to me; and then
stopped short, apparently too much embarrassed to proceed. I tried to
set him at his ease by assuring him that, if my assistance or advice
could be of any use, I was ready to place myself and my time heartily
and unreservedly at his service.

As I said this I saw his eyes beginning to wander away from my face--to
wander slowly, inch by inch, as it were, until they stopped at a
certain point, with the same fixed stare into vacancy which had so
often startled me on former occasions. The whole expression of his face
altered as I had never yet seen it alter; he sat before me looking like
a man in a death-trance.

"You are very kind," he said, slowly and faintly, speaking, not to me,
but in the direction in which his eyes were still fixed. "I know you can
help me; but--"

He stopped; his face whitened horribly, and the perspiration broke out
all over it. He tried to continue--said a word or two--then stopped
again. Seriously alarmed about him, I rose from my chair with the
intention of getting him some water from a jug which I saw standing on a
side-table.

He sprang up at the same moment. All the suspicions I had ever heard
whispered against his sanity flashed over my mind in an instant, and I
involuntarily stepped back a pace or two.

"Stop," he said, seating himself again; "don't mind me; and don't leave
your chair. I want--I wish, if you please, to make a little alteration,
before we say anything more. Do you mind sitting in a strong light?"

"Not in the least."

I had hitherto been seated in the shade of his reading-lamp, the only
light in the room.

As I answered him he rose again, and, going into another apartment,
returned with a large lamp in his hand; then took two candles from the
side-table, and two others from the chimney piece; placed them all,
to my amazement, together, so as to stand exactly between us, and then
tried to light them. His hand trembled so that he was obliged to give up
the attempt, and allow me to come to his assistance. By his direction,
I took the shade off the reading-lamp after I had lit the other lamp
and the four candles. When we sat down again, with this concentration
of light between us, his better and gentler manner began to return, and
while he now addressed me he spoke wit