"I am Julius Courtney--"
He paused, for Lefevre had put his head in his hands, shaken with a
silent paroxysm of grief. It wrung the doctor's heart, as if in the
person that sat opposite him, all that was noblest and most gracious in
humanity were disgraced and overthrown.
"Yes," continued the voice, "I am Julius; there is no other Courtney
that I know of, and soon there will be none at all." The doctor
listened, but he could not endure to look again. "I am dying--I have
been dying for a dozen years, and for a dozen years I have resisted and
overcome death; now I surrender. I have come to my period. I shall never
enter your house again. I have only come now to confess myself, and to
ask a last favour of you--a last token of friendship."
"I will freely do what I can for you, Julius," said the doctor, still
without looking at him, "though I am too overcome, too bewildered, yet
to say much to you."
"Thank you. You will hear my story and understand. It contains a secret
which I, like a blind fool, have only used for myself, but which you
will apply for the wide benefit of mankind.
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