e exquisiteness of the decadent efflorescence of a
passing race."

He covered a sheet of foolscap with a bare--he called it a
detached--statement of the facts about Irish lunacy. He had just begun
to recount his own experience when there was a knock at the door.
The housekeeper, a legacy from Dr. Farelly, came in to tell him that
Constable Malone wished to speak to him. Dr. Lovaway left his MS. with
a sigh. He found Constable Malone, a tall man of magnificent physique,
standing in the hall, the raindrops dripping from the cape he wore.

"The sergeant is after sending me round to you, sir," said Constable
Malone, "to know would it be convenient for you to attend at Ballygran
any time this afternoon to certify a lunatic?"

"Surely not another!" said Dr. Lovaway.

"It was myself found him, sir," said the constable with an air of
pride in his achievement. "The sergeant bid me say that he'd have Patsy
Doolan's car engaged for you, and that him and me would go with you so
that you wouldn't have any trouble more than the trouble of going to
Ballygran, which is an out-of-the-way place sure enough, and it's a
terrible day."

"Is the man violent?" asked Dr. Lovaway.

By way of reply Constable Malone gave a short account of the man's
position in life.

"He's some kind of a nephew of Mrs. Finnegan," he said, "and they call
him Jimmy Finnegan, though Finnegan might not be his proper name. He
does be helping Finnegan himself about the farm, and they say he's
middling useful. But, of course, now the harvest's gathered, Finnegan
will be able to do well enough without him till the spring."

This did not seem to Dr. Lovaway a sufficient reason for incarcerating
Jimmy in an asylum.

"But is he violent?" he repeated. "Is he dangerous to himself or
others?"

"He never was the same as other boys," said the constable, "and the
way of it with fellows like that is what you wouldn't know. He might be
quiet enough to-day and be slaughtering all before him to-morrow. And
what Mrs. Finnegan says is that she'd be glad if you'd see the poor boy
to-day because she's in dread of what he might do to-morrow night?"

"To-morrow night! Why to-morrow night?"

"There's a change in the moon to-morrow," said the constable, "and they
do say that the moon has terrible power over fellows that's took that
way."

Dr. Lovaway, who was young and trained in scientific methods, was at
first inclined to argue with Constable Malone about the effect of th