sed him great anxiety. In spite of
long continued baths and all sorts of quieting treatments, he had
passed another sleepless and excited night. He now lay in a sort of
half sleep, and shrank and trembled with the effort that his horrible
delusion required of him. He heard voices, the cries of millions of
men, who wrung their hands and begged him not to give them up to
destruction, he heard the ringing of bells, the chanting of
processions, the prayers of emperors and kings, bishops and popes. His
skin was dry and parched, his pulse was rapid and unsteady. Dr. Maerz
sat for a long time by his bedside watching him attentively, and
sometimes, closing his eyes for a moment, he would recall with
lightning rapidity all his knowledge and experience of such cases. At
last, with a thoughtful and baffled air, he left Engelhardt.

But an hour later he was beside him again.

The patients in the ward showed that special form of nervousness that
was always present whenever the frequent visits of the doctor indicated
that some one was very ill. They walked quietly, spoke in undertones,
and many of them refused to leave the room at all. The little lawyer
hardly dared to stir and begged the thousands of birds, that lived in
his room, to be very quiet, when he put their bread and water on the
table. Again and again some unknown power drove him to look through the
keyhole. He would stand there a long time, covering his left eye with
his hand as children do and peering with his right at the white wall of
the corridor. But whenever a passer-by darkened his outlook, he would
shrink back startled. If he had to go out to attend to his flowers, he
opened the door slowly and silently and walked backward, fixing his
eyes on Engelhardt's door, until he reached the steps. There he would
turn quickly and hurry away, possessed by the fear that a hand would
suddenly seize him by the coat collar.

Michael Petroff was the only one upon whom the general restlessness had
no effect. He sat at his writing table, cut out his cases, numbered,
registered, pasted, wrote. He shook his head smilingly over the little
lawyer's terror, but promised him his protection in any case.

"Make your mind easy, my friend!" said he patronizingly. "So long as I
am living, you have no cause for anxiety!" And with a pompous air he
added: "I have been to see him. He told me that the "Rajah" had
promised him his soul. Voila tout. You may rely on Michael Petroff!"

"I thank y