In any case, I shall run the risk of enlarging the dose to forty
minims. On this occasion, Mr. Blake knows beforehand that he is going to
take the laudanum--which is equivalent, physiologically speaking, to his
having (unconsciously to himself) a certain capacity in him to resist
the effects. If my view is right, a larger quantity is therefore
imperatively required, this time, to repeat the results which the
smaller quantity produced, last year.
* * * * *
Ten o'clock.--The witnesses, or the company (which shall I call them?)
reached the house an hour since.
A little before nine o'clock, I prevailed on Mr. Blake to accompany me
to his bedroom; stating, as a reason, that I wished him to look round
it, for the last time, in order to make quite sure that nothing had been
forgotten in the refurnishing of the room. I had previously arranged
with Betteredge, that the bedchamber prepared for Mr. Bruff should
be the next room to Mr. Blake's, and that I should be informed of the
lawyer's arrival by a knock at the door. Five minutes after the clock in
the hall had struck nine, I heard the knock; and, going out immediately,
met Mr. Bruff in the corridor.
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