In that dreadful
perturbation of mind and laxity of body, to what remedy did I apply? To
the remedy, sir, which has never failed me yet for the last thirty years
and more--to This Book!"
He hit the book a sounding blow with his open hand, and struck out of it
a stronger smell of stale tobacco than ever.
"What did I find here," pursued Betteredge, "at the first page I
opened? This awful bit, sir, page one hundred and seventy-eight, as
follows.--'Upon these, and many like Reflections, I afterwards made it
a certain rule with me, That whenever I found those secret Hints or
Pressings of my Mind, to doing, or not doing any Thing that presented;
or to going this Way, or that Way, I never failed to obey the secret
Dictate.' As I live by bread, Mr. Jennings, those were the first words
that met my eye, exactly at the time when I myself was setting the
secret Dictate at defiance! You don't see anything at all out of the
common in that, do you, sir?"
"I see a coincidence--nothing more."
"You don't feel at all shaken, Mr. Jennings, in respect to this medical
enterprise of yours?
"Not the least in the world."
Betteredge stared hard at me, in dead silence.
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