Being asked what name the gentleman had given at the hotel, the
book-keeper showed her record, with the equivocal name of "M. Dolaro."
The name might be Italian or Spanish,--or English or American for that
matter,--and the initial "M" might be French or anything in the world.
In the meantime Dr Lefevre had been pondering the details of the affair,
and noting the aspects of his patient's condition; but the more he noted
and pondered, the more contorted and inexplicable did the mystery
become. His understanding boggled at its very first notes. It was almost
unheard of that a young man of his patient's strong and healthy
constitution and temper should be hypnotised or mesmerised at all, much
less hypnotised to the verge of dissolution; and it was unprecedented
that even a weak, hysterical subject should, after being unhypnotised,
remain so long in prostrate exhaustion. Then, suppose these
circumstances of the case were ordinary, there arose this question,
which refused to be solved: Since it was ridiculous to suppose that the
hypnotisation was a wanton experiment, and since it had not been for the
sake of robbery, what had been its object?
The interest of the case was emphasised and enlarged by an article in
'The Daily Telegraph,' in which was called to mind the singular story in
its Paris correspondence a day or two before, of the young woman in the
Hotel-Dieu, which Lefevre had forgotten.
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