“But the one great stumbling-block lay in my want of capital.
As you will readily understand, a specialist who aims high iscompelled to start in one of a dozen streets in the CavendishSquare quarter, all of which entail enormous rents and furnishingexpenses. Besides this preliminary outlay, he must be prepared tokeep himself for some years, and to hire a presentable carriage andhorse. To do this was quite beyond my power, and I could onlyhope that by economy I might in ten years’ time save enough toenable me to put up my plate. Suddenly, however, an unexpectedincident opened up quite a new prospect to me.
“This was a visit from a gentleman of the name of Blessington,who was a complete stranger to me. He came up to my room onemorning, and plunged into business in an instant.
“ ‘You are the same Percy Trevelyan who has had sodistinguished a career and won a great prize lately?’ said he.
“I bowed.
“ ‘Answer me frankly,’ he continued, ‘for you will find it toyour interest to do so. You have all the cleverness which makes asuccessful man. Have you the tact?’
“I could not help smiling at the abruptness of the question.
“ ‘I trust that I have my share,’ I said.
“ ‘Any bad habits? Not drawn towards drink, eh?’
“ ‘Really, sir!’ I cried.
“ ‘Quite right! That’s all right! But I was bound to ask. With allthese qualities, why are you not in practice?’
“I shrugged my shoulders.
“ ‘Come, come!’ said he, in his bustling way. ‘It’s the old story.
More in your brains than in your pocket, eh? What would you sayI were to start you in Brook Street?’
“I stared at him in astonishment.
“ ‘Oh, it’s for my sake, not for yours,’ he cried. ‘I’ll be perfectlyfrank with you, and if it suits you it will suit me very well. I have afew thousands to invest, d’ye see, and I think I’ll sink them in you.’
“ ‘But why?’ I gasped.
“ ‘Well, it’s just like any other speculation, and safer than most.’
“ ‘What am I to do, then?’
“ ‘I’ll tell you. I’ll take the house, furnish it, pay the maids, andrun the whole place. All you have to do is just to wear out yourchair in the consulting-room. I’ll let you have pocket-money andeverything. Then you hand over to me three quarters of what youearn, and you keep the other quarter for yourself.’
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“This was the strange proposal, Mr. Holmes, with which theman Blessington approached me. I won’t weary you with theaccount of how we bargained and negotiated. It ended in mymoving into the house next Lady day, and starting in practice onvery much the same conditions as he had suggested. He camehimself to live with me in the character of a resident patient.
His heart was weak, it appears, and he needed constant medicalsupervision. He turned the two best rooms of the first floor intoa sitting-room and bedroom for himself. He was a man of singularhabits, shunning company and very seldom going out. His life wasirregular, but in one respect he was regularity itself. Every evening,at the same hour, he walked into the consulting-room, examined thebooks, put down five and three-pence for every guinea that I hadearned, and carried the rest off to the strong-box in his own room.
“I may say with confidence that he never had occasion to regrethis speculation. From the first it was a success. A few good casesand the reputation which I had won in the hospital brought merapidly to the front, and during the last few years I have made hima rich man.
“So much, Mr. Holmes, for my past history and my relationswith Mr. Blessington. It only remains for me now to tell you whathas occurred to bring me here tonight.
“Some weeks ago Mr. Blessington came down to me in, as itseemed to me, a state of considerable agitation. He spoke of someburglary which, he said, had been committed in the West End,and he appeared, I remember, to be quite unnecessarily excitedabout it, declaring that a day should not pass before we should addstronger bolts to our windows and doors. For a week he continuedto be in a peculiar state of restlessness, peering continually out ofthe windows, and ceasing to take the short walk which had usuallybeen the prelude to his dinner. From his manner it struck me thathe was in mortal dread of something or somebody, but when Iquestioned him upon the point he became so offensive that I wascompelled to drop the subject. Gradually, as time passed, his fearsappeared to die away, and he had renewed his former habits, whena fresh event reduced him to the pitiable state of prostration inwhich he now lies.
“What happened was this. Two days ago I received the letterwhich I now read to you. Neither address nor date is attached to it.
“ ‘A Russian nobleman who is now resident in England, [it runs]
would be glad to avail himself of the professional assistance of Dr.
Percy Trevelyan. He has been for some years a victim to catalepticattacks, on which, as is well known, Dr. Trevelyan is an authority.
He proposes to call at about quarter-past six to-morrow evening, ifDr. Trevelyan will make it convenient to be at home.’
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“This letter interested me deeply, because the chief difficultyin the study of catalepsy is the rareness of the disease. You maybelieve, then, that I was in my consulting-room when, at theappointed hour, the page showed in the patient.
“He was an elderly man, thin, demure, and commonplace—byno means the conception one forms of a Russian nobleman. I wasmuch more struck by the appearance of his companion. This wastall young man, surprisingly handsome, with a dark, fierce face,and the limbs and chest of a Hercules. He had his hand underthe other’s arm as they entered, and helped him to a chair withtenderness which one would hardly have expected from hisappearance.
“ ‘You will excuse my coming in, Doctor,’ said he to me, speakingEnglish with a slight lisp. ‘This is my father, and his health is amatter of the most overwhelming importance to me.’
“I was touched by this filial anxiety. ‘You would, perhaps, care toremain during the consultation?’ said I.
