receive him again. I could not keep a fowl or animal about me, he was so destructive; and then he was so perverse and untruthful in many ways. For a long time I made a point of believing all he said.”

"Did you?" I replied. "You would hardly find that answer, I suspect."

66

"No, I did not. I might have dismissed one hundred servants before one could be found to please him. He was several times exceedingly violent to one poor fellow who was in delicate health."

66

Hardly a fit attendant!" I ventured to say. "Perhaps not; but he was a very amiable man, and Tremlett had really laid such serious complaints respecting the want of temper in the three preceding ones, that I thought it my duty to secure that point, and overlook a minor deficiency. But, however, he was more outrageous with this man than ever."

"Well, Dr. Brandling, he is not responsible: it is part of his disease; and a very unfortunate part it is."

66

"Very true.

Do you know Mr. Mainwaring,

at whose instance the inquiry is instituted?

"No," I said; "what sort of a man he?"

is

"I don't much like him, but I may be wrong. There is a very ill feeling between the cousins, I think. I suspect but for the death of Tremlett's son, Mainwaring would not have stirred in the matter. He began to come to see him at my house about that period, and once nearly got his. neck broken."

"How was that?"

"I had advised Mr. Mainwaring not to trust his cousin too far; but I suppose he had forgotten the caution at any rate, they were walking together on a terrace wall; Mr. Mainwaring happened to turn his head, and he says that Tremlett struck him backwards instantly. He fell upwards of eleven feet, and hurt himself a good deal. Tremlett declared it was an accident, and that his cousin walked straight over the terrace; but that was not a likely tale. Besides, the attendant who was watching him from a distance

VOL. I.

14

assures me that he saw Tremlett raise his arm, and tilt the other over from behind."

"It is very much resembling his usual style of doing things. I should not like to have the responsibility of setting him at large. Where is his wife, and what is her feeling on the subject? I remember thinking that she suffered much from the nervous terror with which her husband's conduct had inspired her."

"I have not seen her lately; but though she is thoroughly aware how dangerous he is, I suspect she dislikes Mr. Mainwaring to the full as much as Tremlett does."

Very natural in a wife and a mother; she could not do otherwise."

"Of course Mainwaring stands in a very invidious position towards them both. I told him so, and said I wondered he did not give it up. But he declared that it was his duty, and that he did it for her sake."

"He is the next heir, I think, is he not? Ah! Dr. Brandling, self-interest sometimes sharpens the sense of duty wonderfully."

"It does in this case, I fancy."

"Did Mr. Tremlett ever speak of his wife?" "He often said that no punishment would be bad enough for her if she wished him to be kept under restraint; and for that reason I never answered any of his numerous questions about her."

"That is well; and I should earnestly advise that she should be kept in the background throughout the inquiry. Nothing is so painful as to see a wife obliged to give evidence of that distressing kind against a husband; and with his memory for injuries, it might become very serious afterwards."

"Yes, he never forgets.

However, it is not

intended to summon her, though Mr. Mainwaring

was very pertinacious in desiring it."

"Ah!" I said. "Well, I think that is all, Dr. Brandling."

"But suppose I am asked to define insanity, what can I say?" he recommenced.

* Many psychologists affirm that a very retentive memory is rarely accompanied by a powerful imagination, or a comprehensive mind; and vice versâ, that they are, to a certain extent, incompatible.

"But there is no definition yet made that is not open to objection; and how foolish I shall look if I say I can't give one!"

"I cannot advise you," I said, fairly out of patience. "Stay, you had better talk over the matter with some legal friend; he will give you better counsel than I can, and will show you that it is not such a very formidable thing after all."

"I think it would be much better if you appeared also."

"I don't," I said, shortly, for I hated the idea in my heart quite as much as he did.

"Well, we shall see," he said; and I felt some distrust of him as I wished him good-night.