to be cleared away.

After a short pause, my friend, as if with a sudden resolve, went
quickly up to the table and took the shade off the lamp, so that the
whole room became light.

"You see," said he, "things are just the same with me as in the old
days, only that there are now two garret windows instead of one, a few
more shelves with books, and a rather better monthly salary, which I
get by combining a teachership in one of the lower-class schools here,
with an easy post on a daily paper. It is all I need, you see. I moved
here from Bergen this spring, and ought properly to have paid you a
call, but have not yet managed it; when I have seen you in the street,
you have always looked as if you were too much taken up with your
practice. But now that I have you in my den, we will have a chat about
old times, and what you are doing. Take off your coat, while I go down
and see about getting some toddy made." Whereupon he replaced the lamp
shade, and disappeared through the doorway.

My friend's somewhat forced introductory speech did not seem natural to
me; it was as though, in his ready confidence, he were regulated rather
by my circumstances than by his own, and the whole thing gave me the
impression that at the outset he would parry all unnecessary questions.

As yet I, at least, had not said a word; indeed, I had not seen more of
my friend than a brief glimpse of his face, as he turned towards the
lamp and replaced the shade. Still I recognised, in spite of the
difference in age, the same thin, delicate, pale face, which, in the old
days, would sometimes assume such a beautiful, melancholy expression--it
was with that he was always photographed in my memory--but the features
had now acquired a striking sharpness, and in the quick glance I caught
there was an expression, both suffering and searching, which made me
indescribably sad. I have seen sick people look at me in the same way,
when they were afraid they were to be operated upon; and I thought I now
understood at any rate this much, that what wanted operating on here was
my friend's confidence, and this would require all my dexterity.

I was once the most confiding fellow under the sun; but since I became a
doctor and saw what people really are, I have become thoroughly
suspicious; for there is nothing in the whole world you may not have to
presuppose, even with the best of mortals, if you do not want to be
misled as to the cause of their disease. I suspect e