Page:Garshin - A Red Flower (1911).djvu/21

Rh were not permitted in the garden. When the assistant physician began to search for the new patient, they pointed him out at the end of the corridor; he stood there, with his face against the pane in the glass door, his eye fixed on a flower bed. His entire attention seemed attracted by a bright red flower, one which had the appearance of a poppy.

"Please have yourself weighed," said the assistant physician, touching the man's shoulder. When the individual thus addressed turned his face the doctor almost fell back in fright—so much savage hate and wickedness burned in the patient's senseless eyes. But seeing the assistant physician he at once changed the expression of his face, and obediently followed without saying a word, as if absorbed in deep thought. They entered the physician's cabinet; the patient mounted the platform of a small scale; the assistant weighing him noted in a book opposite his name 109 pounds. On the second day it was 107; on the third 106.

"If he goes on in this way, he will not survive," said the physician, giving special orders to have him fed well.

Notwithstanding this fact, however, and