Page:Richard Marsh--The goddess a demon.djvu/75

Rh to be knocked down. I am aware that you are the sort of person who, for less cause, will do much more than knock a man down." He inclined his head further towards me, his resemblance to a bird of prey becoming still more pronounced. "Ferguson, I'm a pathologist; a student of mental diseases. As such I have regarded you for some time with growing interest. Unless I err you are the victim of a form of aberration which is not so unusual as some may suppose; you suffer from mnemonic intervals."

"I have not the faintest notion what you mean."

Indeed, I was beginning to wonder if the doctor himself was not stark mad. He went on, in his quick, even tones, as if he were calculating what the effect of each word would be before he uttered it.

"If you were to kill me where I am standing, I believe that you would be capable of forgetting what you had done directly I was dead; and quite possibly the consciousness of your action might never visit you again. That is what I mean."

"Hume!"

For some cause his words seemed to penetrate to the very marrow of my bones, as if they had been daggers of ice.

"Now I will explain to you why I assert that,