Sealed Lips — page 19: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

SHALED LIPS, Peiisy 9. and kinds! My straw hut in the Okma Island, your walls hung with Gobelin tapestry, my Chinese cook with braided hair, your valet’s whiskers, the King of Siam’s bayaderes, the ballet dancers a few hours ago, my fights with pirates, the massacre of the unfortunate Dracoses, the sea, the ships, the rail- road, the opera, my elephants, the Parisians spark- ling with diamonds. Ah! my friend, tell me thatI ° am not crazy! You are not at the head of an insti- tution for the insane, and just now when I wanted to leave they did not give me a cold water douche?” “Do not be uneasy. My brain is in no better con- dition than yours. It now contains eighty men, all in black coats, playing on every sort of an instru- ment that was ever heard of. Not only do they play, but I know in advance just the note that they should sound. I see it, I wrote it, I wait for it, and Iam always afraid that they will play the wrong one. One of the disadvantages of the school that I belong to is that they notice false notes. Well! We are both tired out. Let us go to bed.” “You speak of it coolly; to go to bed, for you, simply means to open a door, take of your clothes, and stretch yourself out apon a good bed. But for me, to leave this arm-chair, go into the street, I should say real life; turn to the east into a laby- rinth of houses; read the numbers; get out of the way of carriages. If some one would only take me and put me out on the sidewalk! Once there, will- ing or not, I would make an effort, like a paralytic Gomicbooks (Cl 0)