Ah! Miss
Bright has knocked over her glass!"
Cuckoo murmured a stumbling apology, gazing with nervous intentness at
Valentine. It seemed to her that he had a gift of divination. Doctor
Levillier laughed gently.
"I am not inclined to suppose all my opponents in thought mad," he said.
"Still, such a belief would certainly indicate in the holder of it the
possession of a mind so uncommon, so unique, I may say, that it would
naturally rouse one to very close attention and observation of it."
"Exactly," Valentine rejoined.
A certain audacity was slowly creeping into his demeanour and growing
while he talked. It manifested itself in slight gesticulations, conceited
movements of the hand and head, in the colour of the voice and the blunt
directness of his glances.
"Exactly. Attention and observation directed towards the object of
satisfying yourself that the man--myself, let us say--was mad? You
don't reply. Let me ask you a question. Why should a profound belief
in human power of will indicate madness?"
"A belief that is not based on any foundation or proof--that is my point.
An extraordinary belief, personal to one person, rejected by mankind in
the mass, and founded upon nothing, no fact, no inference even, in the
history of mankind, is decidedly a strong indication of dementia.
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