"I should not consult a physician for that ailment. The fact is, that for some while past I have felt as if my memory were going." "Tut! nonsense!" "At times it seems as if a perfect cloud were drawn between the present and the past. I can't account for it--I do not understand it; but things I have done one week are totally forgotten by me the next." "If they are bad things, so much the better." "You treat it very lightly, sir, but it troubles me a great deal." "My dear boy, I would not treat it lightly if I thought there was anything in it; but you do not and never have displayed a symptom of brain disease, neither have your father and mother before you. You are not dissipated." "Oh no! I never--" "You may spare yourself the trouble of talking, John, my boy. I could tell in a moment if you had a bit of vice in you, and I know you have not. But come, my lad: to be serious, what has put this crotchet into your head?" "Crotchet or no," said the young man sadly, "I have for months past been tormented with fears that I have something wrong in the head--incipient insanity, or idiocy, if you like to call it so." "I don't like to call it anything of the kind, John Huish," said the doctor tartly, "because it's all nonsense. I have not studied insanity for the last five-and-twenty years without knowing something about it; so you may dismiss that idea from your mind. But come, let's know something more about this terrible bugbear." "Bugbear if you like, doctor, but here is the case. Every now and then I have people--friends, acquaintances--reminding me of things I have promised--engagements I have made--and which I have not kept." "What sort of engagements?" said the doctor. "Well, generally about little bets, or games at cards." "That you owe money on?" "Yes," said Huish eagerly. "I have again and again been asked for money that I owe." "Or are said to owe," said the doctor drily. "Oh, there is no doubt about it," said Huish. "About a twelvemonth ago, when this sort of thing began--" "What sort of thing?" said the doctor. "These lapses of memory," replied Huish. "Oh!" "I used to be annoyed, and denied them, till I began to be scouted by the men I knew; and at last one or two of them brought unimpeachable witnesses to prove that I was in the wrong." "Oh, John Huish, my dear boy, how can you let yourself be imposed upon so easily!" "There is no imposition, I assure you. I give you the facts." "Facts! Did you ever know anyone come and tell you that he owed you money, and pay you?" "Yes, half a dozen times over--heavier amounts than I have had to pay." "Humph! that's strange," said the doctor, looking curiously at his visitor. "Strange?--it's fearful!" cried the young man passionately. "It is getting to be a curse to me, and I cannot shake off the horrible feeling that I am losing my mind--that I am going wrong. And if this be the case, I cannot bear it, especially just now, when--"