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"Yes, in our legal practice there was a case almost exactly

similar, a case of morbid psychology," Porfiry went on quickly.

"A man confessed to murder and how he kept it up! It was a

regular hallucination; he brought forward facts, he imposed upon

everyone and why? He had been partly, but only partly,

unintentionally the cause of a murder and when he knew that he

had given the murderers the opportunity, he sank into dejection,

it got on his mind and turned his brain, he began imagining

things and he persuaded himself that he was the murderer. But at

last the High Court of Appeal went into it and the poor fellow

was acquitted and put under proper care. Thanks to the Court of

Appeal! Tut-tut-tut! Why, my dear fellow, you may drive yourself

into delirium if you have the impulse to work upon your nerves,

to go ringing bells at night and asking about blood! I've studied

all this morbid psychology in my practice. A man is sometimes

tempted to jump out of a window or from a belfry.