cause he was tired of his life and
did not wish to prolong it.

I then wrote out a prescription, which I told them to get made up at the
chemist's. It was a composing draught which I desired them to administer
in a tumbler of water, likewise pouring in some sweet syrup to hide the
nauseous taste. Whenever he complained of thirst this medicine was to be
given him. In this manner he would be forced to take my medicines, and
might recover in spite of himself.

Before leaving the house I inquired of Charles' mother if she were aware
of any love affair of her son's that might have sown the first seeds of
this illness. She replied in the negative, but that she was aware that
he often mentioned a lady's name in his sleep--the name "Edith."

She assured me that there was not a single young lady of her
acquaintance who bore that name; that she was at a loss to conceive how
he could have made the acquaintance of any lady for the last two years
without her knowing it, as he had led such a very retired life since he
had left the university. Truly, he might have made her acquaintance
whilst at Oxford, but, then, he had never shown any symptoms of his
present malady for long after.

I left the house, giving them all the hope I could, and promised to call
again on the morrow. The morrow arrived, and I called again. My draught
had been administered, and I thought that my patient was a degree less
nervous. Whether it was my fancy or what, I know not, but it seemed to
me that the invalid suspected I had been tampering with him. He said
nothing, but I thought I read it in his eyes.

"How did you sleep last night?" I asked.

"Well," he replied; "but somehow I fancy that my dreams last night were
less vivid."

"Not a bad sign," I observed. "Dreaming is a bad thing--sign of a
disordered stomach."

"Some dreams--not all," he replied.

"No, not all; but those very vivid dreams that you allude to all proceed
from a bad digestion or over-heated brain."

"Then, you set down all dreams to some physical cause?"

"Certainly," said I; "though the character of the dream will be shaped
according to our waking thoughts."

"Well, yes," he replied, "generally it is so. I myself once used to have
those sort of dreams. But have you never met with a patient who lived
two separate existences, whose spirit during sleep wandered into those
realms allotted to it; returning upon waking to the body, there to drag
out a wretched existence in the worl