resting. I myself have been a famous reader of
catalogues, and I can testify that the habit has possessed me of
remarkable delusions, the most conspicuous of which is that which
produces within me the conviction that a book is as good as mine as
soon as I have met with its title in a catalogue, and set an X over
against it in pencil.

I recall that on one occasion I was discussing with Judge Methuen and
Dr. O'Rell the attempted escapes of Charles I. from Carisbrooke Castle;
a point of difference having arisen, I said: "Gentlemen, I will refer
to Hillier's 'Narrative,' and I doubt not that my argument will be
sustained by that authority."

It was vastly easier, however, to cite Hillier than it was to find him.
For three days I searched in my library, and tumbled my books about in
that confusion which results from undue eagerness; 't was all in vain;
neither hide nor hair of the desired volume could I discover. It
finally occurred to me that I must have lent the book to somebody, and
then again I felt sure that it had been stolen.

No tidings of the missing volume came to me, and I had almost forgotten
the incident when one evening (it was fully two years after my
discussion with my cronies) I came upon, in one of the drawers of my
oak chest, a Sotheran catalogue of May, 1871. By the merest chance I
opened it, and as luck would have it, I opened it at the very page upon
which appeared this item:

"Hillier (G.) 'Narrative of the Attempted Escapes of Charles the First
from Carisbrooke Castle'; cr. 8vo, 1852, cloth, 3/6."

Against this item appeared a cross in my chirography, and I saw at a
glance that this was my long-lost Hillier! I had meant to buy it, and
had marked it for purchase; but with the determination and that
pencilled cross the transaction had ended. Yet, having resolved to buy
it had served me almost as effectively as though I had actually bought
it; I thought--aye, I could have sworn--I HAD bought it, simply because
I MEANT to buy it.

"The experience is not unique," said Judge Methuen, when I narrated it
to him at our next meeting. "Speaking for myself, I can say that it is
a confirmed habit with me to mark certain items in catalogues which I
read, and then to go my way in the pleasing conviction that they are
actually mine."

"I meet with cases of this character continually," said Dr. O'Rell.
"The hallucination is one that is recognized as a specific one by
pathologists; its cure is quickest e