But,’ he answered, ‘I want him to talk of himself and of his delusion as to consuming live things. He said to Madam Mina, as I see in your diary of yesterday, that he had once had such a belief. Why do you smile, friend John?’
‘Excuse me,’ I said, ‘but the answer is here.’ I laid my hand on the typewritten matter. ‘When our sane and learned lunatic made that very statement of how he used to consume life, his mouth was actually nauseous with the flies and spiders which he had eaten just before Mrs. Harker entered the room.’
Van Helsing smiled in turn. ‘Good!’ he said. ‘Your memory is true, friend John. I should have remembered. And yet it is this very obliquity of thought and memory which makes mental disease such a fascinating study. Perhaps I may gain more knowledge out of the folly of
