The doctor answered that he was. Courtney gave an order to one of the men, who went below and returned with a fur-lined coat which his master put on. That little incident gave a curious shock to Lefevre: it made him think of the mysterious stranger who had sat down opposite the young officer in the Brighton train, and it showed him that he had not been completely satisfied that his friend Julius and the person he had been wont to think of as Hernando Courtney were one and the same. They went forward to be free of the sail and its tackling. Courtney, wrapped in his extra, his fur-lined coat, pointing to a low folding-chair for Lefevre, threw himself on a heap of cordage. He looked around and above him, at the rippling, flashing water and the black hulls of ships, and at the serene, starlit heavens stretching over all. "How wonderful!--how beautiful it all is!" he exclaimed. "All, all!--even the dullest and deadest-seeming things are vibrating, palpitating with the very madness of life! He set the world in my heart, and oh, how I loved!--how I loved the world!" "It is a wonderful world," said Lefevre, trying to speak cheerfully; "and you will take delight in it again when this abnormal fit of depression is over." "Never, Lefevre!--never, never!" said Courtney in strenuous tones. "I regret it deeply, bitterly, madly,--but yet I know that I have about done with it!" "Julius," said Lefevre, "I have been so amazed and bewildered, that I have found little to say: I can scarcely believe that you are in very deed the Julius I have known for years. But now let me remind you I am your friend--" "Thank you, Lefevre." "--And I am ready to help you to the uttermost in this crisis, which I but dimly understand. Tell me about yourself, and let me see what I can do." "You can do nothing," said Julius, sadly shaking his head. "Understand me; I am not going to state a case for diagnosis. Put that idea aside; I merely wish to confess myself to my friend." "But surely," said Lefevre, "I may be your physician as well as your friend. As long as you have life there is hope of life." "No, no, no, Lefevre! There is a depth of life--life on the lees--that is worse than death! If I could retrace my steps to the beginning of this, taking my knowledge with me, then--! But no, I must go my appointed way, and face what is beyond.... But let me tell you my story.