It was late in the evening when the professor was through with his diagnosis. He made copious notes of Amidon's story. Several times his daughter called him away from some book in which he had lost himself while on an excursion in search of parallel cases. At last he paused, his face expressing the triumph of a naturalist at the discovery of a new beetle. "You are not in te least insane!" said he, with the air of telling Florian something hard to believe; "ant you haf none of te stigmata of techeneration. I vould say that you are not a griminal--not much of a griminal anyhow, ant bropaply not at all!" "Thank you! Oh, thank you!" fervently exclaimed Amidon. "It iss a case," went on the professor, "of dual pairsonality. For fife years you haf bropaply been absent from Hazelhurst. You haf been someveres!" "Where, where?" cried Amidon. "Do not fear," said Madame le Claire, laying her hand on his arm. "If it is a case of dual personality, we shall soon find out all about it. You have mysteriously disappeared. Many men do. There was Lieutenant Rogers, of the navy; and Ansel Burns, of Ohio, who woke up in Kentucky in his own store, under the name of Brooks--Brooks' store, you know." "And Ellis, of Bergen," said the professor, "who vas lost for a year, ant tiscofered himself in te pairson of a cook in a lumber-gamp in Minnesota, unter te name of Chamison. Oh, dere are many such! Te supchectife mind, te operations of vich are normally below te threshold of gonsciousness, suddenly dakes gontrol. Pouf! you are anodder man! You haf been Smidt; you are now Chones. As Chones you remember notting of Smidt. You go on, guided by instinct, ant te preacquired semi-intellichence of auto-hypnotismus----" "Oh, papa!" said the tiger-lady, "those are awful words--for a sick man!" "Vell," resumed Blatherwick, dropping into what he regarded as the vernacular, "you go on as Chones, all right all right. Some day, someveres--in dis case in a sleeping-car--you vake as Smidt again. You now do not remember Chones or te Chones life. You are all vorked up--vat you call it--flabbergasted. You come to Madame le Claire. Vat does she do? She calls te supchectife mind up abofe te threshold of gonsciousness, ant you are restored to te Chones blane of mentality. Hypnotismus, hypnotismus: that is vat does it!" "And shall I stay--Jones?" "No, no!" said Madame le Claire. "I will restore you. But while you are--Jones--I shall find out all you want to know about the--Jones--life, and I will tell you when you become yourself again. You will learn all about Bellevale, and Brassfield, and----" "And Elizabeth?" asked Amidon. Madame le Claire paused. "Yes," said she, with much less cordiality, "I suppose so, if you want to know--about Elizabeth." VI THE JONES PLANE OF MENTALITY My lady's eyes Ensphere the skies, Abound in lovely mysteries: Behind their bars Are pent the stars, Warm Venus' glow, the shafts of Mars.