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The Black Robe-Part30_WILKIE COLLINS (1824-1899)_English Literature(文学名著)-第2页

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more we were in Dr. Wybrow's study.

My watch tells me that I cannot hope to finish this letter by



post time. Accept what I have written thus far--and be assured

that the conclusion of my report shall follow a day later.



II.

The doctor began cautiously. "Winterfield is not a very common



name," he said. "But it may not be amiss, Father Benwell, to

discover, if we can, whether _your_ Winterfield is the man of



whom I am in search. Do you only know him by name? or are you a

friend of his?"



I answered, of course, that I was a friend.

Dr. Wybrow went on. "Will you pardon me if I venture on an



indiscreet question? When you are acquainted with the

circumstances, I am sure you will understand and excuse me. Are



you aware of any--what shall I call it?--any romanticincident in

Mr. Winterfield's past life?"



This time--feeling myself, in all probability, on the brink of

discovery--I was careful to preserve my composure. I said,



quietly: "Some such incident as you describe has occurred in Mr.

Winterfield's past life." There I stopped discreetly, and looked



as if I knew all about it.

The doctor showed no curiosity to hear more. "My object," he went



on, "was merely to be reasonably sure that I was speaking to the

right person, in speaking to you. I may now tell you that I have



no personal interest in trying to discover Mr. Winterfield; I

only act as the representative of an old friend of mine. He is



the proprietor of a private asylum at Sandsworth--a man whose

integrity is beyond dispute, or he would not be my friend. You



understand my motive in saying this?"

Proprietors of private asylums are, in these days, the objects of



very general distrust in England. I understood the doctor's

motiveperfectly.



He proceeded. "Yesterday evening, my friend called upon me, and

said that he had a remarkable case in his house, which he



believed would interest me. The person to whom he alluded was a

French boy, whose mental powers had been imperfectly developed



from his childhood. The mischief had been aggravated, when he was

about thirteen years old, by a serious fright. When he was placed



in my asylum, he was not idiotic, and not dangerously mad--it was

a case (not to use technical language) of deficient intelligence,



tending sometimes toward acts of unreasoning mischief and petty

theft, but never approaching to acts of downrightviolence. My



friend was especially interested in the lad--won his confidence

and affection by acts of kindness--and so improved his bodily



health as to justify some hope of also improving the state of his

mind, when a misfortune occurred which has altered the whole



prospect. The poor creature has fallen ill of a fever, and the

fever has developed to typhus. So far, there has been little to



interest you--I am coming to a remarkable event at last. At the

stage of the fever when delirium usually occurs in patients of



sound mind, this crazy French boy has become perfectly sane and

reasonable!"



I looked at him, when he made this amazingassertion, with a

momentary doubt of his being in earnest. Doctor Wybrow understood



me.

"Just what I thought, too, when I first heard it!" he said. "My



friend was neither offended nor surprised. After inviting me to

go to his house, and judge for myself, he referred me to a



similar case, publicly cited in the 'Cornhill Magazine,' for the

month of April, 1879, in an article entitled 'Bodily Illness as a



Mental Stimulant.' The article is published anonymously; but the

character of the periodical in which it appears is a sufficient



guarantee of the trustworthiness of the statement. I was so far

influenced by the testimony thus cited, that I drove to



Sandsworth and examined the case myself."

"Did the examination satisfy you?"



"Thoroughly. When I saw him last night, the poor boy was as sane

as I am. There is, however, a complication in this instance,



which is not mentioned in the case related in print. The boy

appears to have entirely forgotten every event in his past life,



reckoning from the time when the bodilyillness brought with it




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