"'To which end?' he inquired.
"'That nearest Hyde Park Corner,' I answered.
"As it turned out, no question could have served my purpose better.
"'I am going part of the way there,' he said, 'and will show you the
nearest route--that is,' he added, 'if you can accommodate your pace to
mine,' and he pointed, as he spoke, to his right foot, which evidently
was causing him considerable pain.
"Now, that was something quite in my way, and by degrees I got him to
tell me about the accident which had caused his slight deformity. I told
him I was a doctor, and had been to see a patient, and so led him on to
talk about sickness and disease, till at length he touched upon diseases
of a morbid character; asking me if it were true that in some special
maladies the patient was haunted by an apparition which appeared at a
particular hour.
"I told him it was quite true, and that such cases were peculiarly
distressing, and generally proved most difficult to cure--mentioning
several well-authenticated instances, which I do not mean to detail to
you, Patterson, as I know you have an aversion to anything savouring of
medical shop.
"'You doctors do not believe in the actual existence of any such
apparitions, of course?' he remarked, after a pause.
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