Page:Garshin - A Red Flower (1911).djvu/17

Rh closed eyes; there was nothing mad in him now. This was the deep, heavy sleep of a troubled man, dreamless and motionless and seeming almost without breath. He had awakened for a few minutes in full consciousness, as if well, but only to awaken again next morning the same madman.

"How do you feel?" the physician asked him next day.

The patient, who had only just awakened, still lay under the quilt. "Excellent!" answered he, springing up and putting on his slippers and morning gown. "Fine! Only one thing: here!" He pointed to his neck.

"I can't turn my head without pain. But this is nothing. Everything is well if one only understands it; and I understand."

"Do you know where you are?"

"Of course, doctor! I am in an insane asylum. But if one understands it, it is quite immaterial; absolutely immaterial."

The physician looked intently into the man's eyes. The beautiful, careworn face, with its luxuriant, blonde beard, and calm,