THE EPISODE OF THE
DARKENED ROOM
CHAPTER I
What shall we say when Dream-Pictures leave their frames of night
and push us from the waking world?
As the part I played in the events I am about to narrate was rather that
of a passive observer than of an active participant, I need say little of
myself. I am a graduate of a Western university and, by profession, a
physician. My practice is now extensive, owing to my blundering into
fame in a somewhat singular manner, but a year ago I had, I assure you,
little enough to do. Inasmuch as my practice is now secure, I feel
perfectly free to confess that the cure I effected in the now celebrated case
of Mrs. P- was altogether the result of chance, and not, as I was then only
too glad to have people believe, due to an almost supernatural power of
diagnosis.
Mrs. P- was not more surprised at the happy result than was I; the only
difference being that she showed her astonishment, while I endeavoured to
conceal mine, and affected to look upon the whole thing as a matter of
course.