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Speaker 1: A moth genus unknown by H. G. Wells. Probably you

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have heard of Happily, not w T Happily the Sun,

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but the celebrated happily, the happily of Periplenetta Happilier Happily

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the entomologist. If so, you know at least of the

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great feud between Happily and Professor Porkins, though certain of

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its consequences may be new to you for those of

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you who have not a word of two of explanation

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is necessary, which the idle reader may go over with

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a glancing eye, if his indolence so incline him. It

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is amazing how very widely diffused is the ignorance of

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such really important matters as this Happily Porkin's feud. Those

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epoch making controversies again that have convulse the geological society

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are I verily believe, almost entirely unknown outside the fellowship

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of that body. I have heard men of fair general

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education even refer to the great scenes at these meetings

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as vestry meeting squabbles. Yet the great hate of the

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English and Scottish geologists has lasted now half a century,

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and has left deep and abundant marks upon the body

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of the science, and this happly Porkin's business, though perhaps

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a more personal affair stirred passions as profound, if not profounder.

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Your common man has no conception of the zeal that

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animates a scientific investigator, the fury of contradiction you can

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arouse in him. It is the odium theologicum in a

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new form. There are men, for instance, who would gladly

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burn Professor Ray Lancaster at Smithfield for his treatment of

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the molluscer in Encyclopedia, that fantastic extension of the cephalopods

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to cover terrapods. But I wonder from Haply and Porkins's

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It began years and years ago with a revision of

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the microlepidopter, whatever these might be, by Porkin, in which

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he extinguished a new species, created by Happily Happily, who

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was always Quarrelsome replied by a stinging impeachment of the

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entire classification of Porkins. Footnote remarks on a recent revision

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of Microlepidopter Quarterly Journal, Entomological Society, eighteen sixty three, end footnote.

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Porkins in his rejoinder footnote rejoinder to certain remarks et

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cetera ibid. Eighteen sixty four end footnote suggested that Happily's

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microscope was as defective as his powers of observation, and

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called him an irresponsible meddler. Happily was not a professor

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at that time. Happily, in his retort footnote further remarks

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et cetera ibid. End footnote, spoke of blundering collectors and

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described as if inadvertently, Porkins's revision as a miracle of ineptitude.

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It was a war to the knife. However, it would

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scarcely interest the reader to detail how these two great

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men quarreled, and how the split between them widened, until

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from the microlepidopteru they were at war upon every open

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question in entomology. There were memorable occasions. At times the

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Royal Entomological Society meetings resembled nothing so much as the

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Chamber of Deputies. On the whole, I fancy Porkin's was

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nearer the truth than Happily, But Happily was skillful with

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his rhetoric, had a turn of ridicule rare in a

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scientific man, was endowed with vast energy, and had a

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fine sense of injury in the matter of the extinguished species.

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While Porkins was a man of dull presence, prosy of speech,

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in shape not unlike a water barrel, over, conscientious with testimonials,

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and suspected of jobbing museum appointments. So the young men

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gathered around happily and applauded him. It was a long struggle,

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vicious from the beginning, and growing at last to pitiless antagonism.

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The successive turns of fortune, now an advantage to one side,

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and now to another, now happily tormented by some success

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of Porkins, and now Porkins outshone by happily belong rather

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to the history of entomology than to this story. But

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in eighteen ninety one Porkins, whose health had been bad

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for some time, published some work upon the mesoblast of

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the Death's head Moth. What the mesoblast of the Death's

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head Moth may be does not matter a rap in

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the story. But the work was far below his usual

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standard and gave Happily an opening he had coveted for years.

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He must have worked night and day to make the

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most of his advantage. In an elaborate critique, he rent

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Porkins to tatters. One can fancy the man's disordered black

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hair and his queer dark eyes flashing as he went

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for his antagonist, And Porkins made a reply halting, ineffectual,

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with painful gasps of silence, and yet malignant. There was

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no mistaking his will to wound happily, nor his incapacity

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to do so. But few of those who heard him,

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I was absent from that meeting realized how ill the

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man was. Happily had got his opponent down and meant

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to finish him. He followed with simply brutal attack upon

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Porkin's in the form of a paper upon the development

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of moths in general, a paper showing evidence of the

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most extraordinary amount of mental labor, and yet couch in

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a violently controversial tone. Violent as it was an editorial note.

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Witnesses that it was modified. It must have covered Porkin's

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with shame and confusion of face. It left no loophole.

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It was murderous in argument and utterly contemptuous in tone,

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an awful thing for the declining years of a man's career.

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The world of entomologists waited breathlessly for the rejoinder from Porkins.

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He would try one for Porkins had always been game,

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but when it came it surprised them, for the rejoinder

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of Porkins was to catch influenza, to proceed to pneumonia,

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and to die. It was perhaps as effectual a reply

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as he could make under the circumstances, and largely turned

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the current of feeling against Happily. The very people who

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had most gleefully cheered on the gladiators became serious at

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the consequence. There could be no reasonable doubt the threat

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of the defeat had contributed to the death of Porkins.

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There was a limit even to scientific controversy, said serious people.

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Another crushing attack was already in the press and appeared

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on the day before the funeral. I don't think Happily

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exerted himself to stop it. People remembered how Happily had

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hounded down his rival, and forgot that his rival's defects

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scale something satire reads ill over fresh mold. The thing

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provoked comment in the daily papers. This it was that

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made me think that you had probably heard of Happily

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and his controversy. But as I have already remarked, scientific

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workers live very much in a world of their own.

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Half the people, dare I say, who go along Piccadilly

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to the Academy every year, could not tell you where

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the learned societies abide. Many even think that research is

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a kind of happy family cage, in which all kinds

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of men lie down together in peace. In his private thoughts,

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Happily could not forgive Porkins for dying. In the first place,

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it was a mean dodge to escape the absolute pulverization

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Happily had in mind for him, and in the second

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it left Happily's mind with a queer gap in it.

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For twenty years he had worked hard, sometimes far into

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the night, and seven days a week with microscope scalpel,

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collecting net and pen, and almost entirely with reference to Porkins.

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The European reputation he had won had come as an

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incident in that great antipathy he had gradually worked up

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to a climax. In this last controversy, it had killed Porkins,

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but he had also thrown Happily out of gear, so

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to speak, and his doctor advised him to give up

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work for a time and rest. So Happily went down

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into a quiet village in Kent and thought day and

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nights of porkins and good things. It was now impossible

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to say about him. At last, Happily began to realize

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in what direction the preoccupation tended. He determined to make

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a fight for it, and started by trying to read novels.

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But he could not get his mind of porkins white

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in the face and making his last speech every sentence

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a beautiful opening. For Happily, he turned to fiction and

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found it had no grip on him. He read The

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Island Knight's Entertainments until his sense of causation was shocked

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beyond endurance by the bottle imp Then he went to

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Kipling and found he proved nothing besides being irrelevant and vulgar.

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These scientific people have their limitations. Then, unhappily he tried

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Beissants in a House, and the opening chapter set his

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mind upon learned societies and porkins at once. So happily

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turned to chess and found it a little more soothing.

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He soon mastered the moves and the chief gambits and

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the commoner closing positions, and began to beat the vicar.

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But then the cylindrical contours of the opposite king began

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to resemble porkins standing up and gasping ineffectually against checkmates,

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and Happily decided to give up chess. Perhaps the study

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of some new branch of science would, after all be

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better diversion. The best rest is change of occupation. Happily

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determined to plunge into diatoms and had one of his

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smaller microscopes and Halibert's monograph sent down from London. He

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thought that perhaps if he could get up a vigorous

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quarrel with Halibit, he might be able to begin life

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afresh and forget Porkin's. And very soon he was hard

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at work in his habitual strenuous fashion at these very

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microscopic denizens of the wayside pool. It was on the

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third day of the diatoms that Happily became aware of

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a novel addition to the local fauna. He was working

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late at the microscope, and the only light in the

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room was a brilliant little lamp with a special form

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of green lamp shade. Like all experienced microscopists, he kept

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both eyes open. It is the only way to avoid

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excess of fatigue. One eye was over the instrument and

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bright and distinct. Before that was the circular field of

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the microscope a cross which a brown diatom was slowly moving,

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but the other eye happily saw as it were without

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seeing footnote. The reader unaccustomed to microscopes may easily understand

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this by rolling a newspaper in the form of a

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tube and looking through it at a book, keeping the

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other eye open end footnote. He was only dimly conscious

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of the brass side of the instrument, the illuminated part

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of the tablecloth, a sheet of notepaper, the foot of

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the lamp, and the darkened room beyond. Suddenly his attention

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drifted from one eye to the other. The tablecloth was

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of the material called tapestry by shopmen, and rather brightly colored.

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The pattern was in gold, with a small amount of

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crimson and pale blue upon a grayish background. At one

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point the pattern seemed displaced, and there was a vibrating

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movement of colors. At this point, Happily suddenly moved his

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head back and looked with both eyes. His mouth fell

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open with astonishment. It was a large moth or butterfly,

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its wings spread in butterfly fashion. It was strange it

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should be in the room at all, for the windows

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were closed. Strange that it should not have attracted his

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attention when it fluttered into its present position. Strange that

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it should match the tablecloth stranger far to him, Happily,

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the great entomologist, it was altogether unknown. There was no delusion.

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It was crawling slowly towards the foot of the lamp. Genius,

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unknown by heavens and in England, said happily, staring. Then

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suddenly he thought of Porkins. Nothing would have maddened Porkins more,

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and Porkins's was dead. Something about the head and body

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of the insect became singularly suggestive of Porkins's, just as

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the chest king had confound. Porkins said, happily, but I

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must catch this, And, looking around him for some means

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of capturing the moth, he rose slowly out of his chair.

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Suddenly the insect rose struck the edge of the lamp shade.

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Happily heard the ping, and vanished into the shadow. In

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a moment, Happily had whipped off the shade, so that

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the whole room was illuminated. The thing had disappeared, but

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soon his practiced eye detected it upon the wall paper

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near the door. He went towards it, poising the lamp

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shade for capture. Before he was within striking distance, however,

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it had risen and was fluttering round the room. After

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the fashion of its kind, it flew with sudden starts

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and turns, seeming to vanish here and reappear there. Once

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happily struck and missed. Then again the third time he

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hit his microscope. The instrument swayed, struck and overturned the

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lamp and fell noisily on the floor. The lamp turned

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over on the table and very luckily went out. Happily

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was left in the dark. With a start. He felt

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the strange moth blunder into his face. It was maddening.

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He had no lights. If he opened the door of

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the room, the thing would get away. In the darkness,

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he saw Porkins quite distinctly laughing at him. Porkins had

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ever an oily laugh. He swore furiously and stamped his

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foot on the floor. There was a timid rapping at

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the door. Then it opened, perhaps a foot and very slowly.

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The alarmed face of the landlady appeared behind a pink

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candle flame. She wore a night cap over her gray hair,

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and had some purple garment over her shoulders. What was

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that fearful smash? She said, has anything? The strange moth

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appeared fluttering about the chink of the door. Shut the door,

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said Happily, and suddenly rushed at her. The door slammed hastily.

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Happily was left alone in the dark. Then in the

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paws he heard the landlady scuttle upstairs, lock her door,

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and drag something heavy across the room and put against it.

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It became evident to Happily that his conduct and appearance

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had been strange and alarming. Confound the moths and porkins, However,

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it was a pity to lose the moth. Now he

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felt his way into the hall and found the matches.

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After sending his hat down upon the floor with a

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noise like a drum. With the lighted candle, he returned

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to the sitting room. No moth was to be seen,

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yet once for a moment it seemed that the thing

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was fluttering around his head. Happily very suddenly decided to

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give up the moth and go to bed, but he

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was excited all night long. His sleep was broken by

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dreams of the moth, porkins, and the landlady. Twice in

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the night, he turned out and soused his head in

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cold water. One thing was very clear to him. The

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landlady could not possibly understand about the strange moth, especially

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as he had failed to catch it. No one but

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an entomologist would understand quite how he felt. She was

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probably frightened at his behavior, and yet he failed to

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see how he could explain it. He decided to say

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nothing further about the events of last night. After breakfast,

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he saw her in the garden and decided to go

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out and talk to her to reassure her. He talked

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to her about beans and potatoes, bees, caterpillars, and the

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price of fruit. She replied in her usual manner, but

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she looked at him a little suspiciously and kept walking

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as he walked, so that there was always a bed

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of flowers or a row of beans, or something of

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that sort between them. After a while, he began to

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feel singularly irritated at this, and to conceal his vexation,

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he went indoors and presently went out for a walk.

254
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The moth or butterfly, trailing an odd flavor of porkins

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with it, kept coming into that walk, though he did

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his best to keep his mind off it. Once he

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saw it quite distinctly, with its wings flattened out upon

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the old stone wall that runs along the west edge

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of the park. But going up to it, he found

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it was only two lumps of gray and yellow lichen. This,

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said Happily, is the reverse of mimicry. Instead of a

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butterfly looking like a stone, here is a stone looking

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like a butterfly. Once something hovered and fluttered around his head,

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but by an effort of will he drove that impression

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out of his mind again. In the afternoon, Happily called

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upon the Vicar and argued with him upon theological questions.

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They sat in the little arbor covered with brier, and

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smoked as they wrangled. Look at that moth, said Happily, suddenly,

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pointing to the edge of the wooden table where, said

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the vicar. You don't see a moth on the edge

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of the table there, said Happily, certainly not, said the vicar.

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Hapily was thunderstruck. He gasped. The vicar was staring at him.

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Clearly the man saw nothing. The eye of the faith

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is no better than the eye of science, said Happily, awkwardly,

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I don't see your point, said the vicar, thinking it

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was part of the argument. That night, happily found the

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moth crawling over his counterpane. He sat on the edge

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of the bed in his shirt sleeves, reasoned with himself.

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Was it pure hallucination? He knew he was slipping, and

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he battled for his sanity with the same silent energy

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he had formerly displayed against porkins. So persistent his mental

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habit that he felt as if it were a struggle

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with porkins. He was well versed in psychology. He knew

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that such visual illusions do not come as a result

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of mental strain. But the point was he did not

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see the moth. He had heard it when it touched

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the edge of the lamp shade, and afterwards when it

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hit against the wall, and he had felt it strike

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his face in the dark. He looked at it. It

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was not at all dream like, but perfectly clear and solid.

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Looking in the candlelight, he saw the hairy body and

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the short, feathery antennae, the jointed legs, even a place

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where the dawn was rubbed from the wing. He suddenly

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felt angry with himself for being afraid of a little insect.

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His landlady had got the servant to sleep with her

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that night, so she was afraid to be alone. In addition,

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she had locked the door and put the chest of

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drawers against it. They listened and talked in whispers after

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they had gone to bed, but nothing occurred to alarm them.

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About eleven they had ventured to put the candle out

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and had both dozed off to sleep. Then they woke

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up with a start and sat up in bed, listening

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in the darkness. Then they heard the slippered feet going

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to and fro. In Hapley's room, a chair was overturned.

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There was a violent dab at the wall, then a

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china mental ornament smashed upon the fender. Suddenly the door

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of the room opened and they heard him upon the landing.

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They clung to one another listening. He seemed to be

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dancing upon the staircase. Now he would go down three

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or four steps quickly, then up again, then hurry down

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into the hall. They heard the umbrella s danger over

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and the fan like brake. Then the bolt shot and

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the chain rattled. He was opening the door. They hurried

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to the window. It was a dim, gray night, and

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almost broken sheet of watery cloud was sweeping across the moon,

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and the hedge, and the trees in front of the

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house were black against the pale roadway. They saw happily,

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looking like a ghost, in his shirt and white trousers,

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running to and fro in the road and beating the air.

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Now he would stop. Now he would dart very rapidly

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at something invisible. Now he would move upon it with

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stealthy strides. At last he went out of sight up

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the road towards the down. Then, while they argued who

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should go down and lock the door, he returned. He

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was walking very fast, and he came straight into the house,

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closed the door carefully, and went quietly up to his bedroom.

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Everything was silent, Missus Colville said, happily, calling down the staircase.

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Next morning, I hope I did not alarm you last night.

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You may well ask that, said Missus Carvill. The fact

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is I am a sleep walker, and the last two

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nights I have been without my sleeping mixture. There's nothing

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to be alarmed about. Really, I'm sorry I made such

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an ass of myself. I will go over the down

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to shore him and get some stuff to make me

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sleep soundly. I ought to have done it yesterday but

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half way over the down by the chalk pits, the

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moth came upon Happily again, he went on trying to

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keep his mind upon chest problems, but it was no good.

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The thing fluttered into his face, and he struck at

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it with his hat and self defense. Then rage, the

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old rage, the rage he had so often felt against Porkin's,

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returned once more. He went on leaping and striking at

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the eddying insect. Suddenly he trod on nothing and fell headlong.

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There was a gap in his sensations, and Happily found

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himself sitting on the heap of flints in front of

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the opening of the chalk pits, with a leg twisted

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back underneath him. The strange moth was still fluttering around

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his head. He struck at it with his hand, and

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turning his head, saw two men approaching him. One was

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the village doctor. It occurred to Happily that this was lucky.

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Then it came into his mind with extraordinary vividness that

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no one would ever be able to see the strange

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moth except himself, and that it behooved him to keep

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silent about it. Late that night, however, after his broken

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leg was set, he was feverish and forgot his self restraint.

356
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He was lying flat on his bed, and he began

357
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to run his eyes round the room to see if

358
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the moth was still about. He tried not to do this,

359
00:22:28,000 --> 00:22:30,720
but it was no good. He soon caught sight of

360
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the thing resting close to his hand by the night light,

361
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on the green tablecloth. The wings quivered with a sudden

362
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wave of anger. He smote at it with his fist,

363
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and the nurse woke up with a shriek. He had

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missed it, that moth, he said, And then it was

365
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fancy nothing. All the time, he could see quite clearly

366
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the insect going round the cornice and darting across the room,

367
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And he could also see that the nurse saw nothing

368
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of it, and looked at him strangely. He must keep

369
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himself in hand, and he knew he was a lost

370
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man if he did not keep himself in hand. But

371
00:23:04,440 --> 00:23:07,440
as the knight waned, the fever grew upon him, and

372
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the very dread he had of seeing the moth made

373
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him see it about five, just as the dawn was gray.

374
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He tried to get out of bed and catch it,

375
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though his leg was afire with pain. The nurse had

376
00:23:19,279 --> 00:23:22,079
to struggle with him. On account of this, they tied

377
00:23:22,119 --> 00:23:25,279
him down to the bed. At this the moth grew bolder,

378
00:23:25,759 --> 00:23:28,160
and once he felt it settle in his hair. Then,

379
00:23:28,440 --> 00:23:31,240
because he struck out violently with his arms, they tied

380
00:23:31,279 --> 00:23:34,519
these also. At this the moth came and crawled over

381
00:23:34,559 --> 00:23:38,880
his face, and Happily wept, swore, screamed, prayed for them

382
00:23:38,880 --> 00:23:42,519
to take it off him. Unavailingly. The doctor was a blockhead,

383
00:23:43,079 --> 00:23:47,319
a half qualified general practitioner, and quite ignorant of mental science.

384
00:23:47,839 --> 00:23:51,039
He simply said there was no moth. Had he possessed

385
00:23:51,039 --> 00:23:53,759
the wit, he might still perhaps have saved Happily from

386
00:23:53,799 --> 00:23:56,960
his fate by entering into his delusion and covering his

387
00:23:57,000 --> 00:24:00,160
face with gauze, as he prayed might be done. But

388
00:24:00,359 --> 00:24:03,599
as I say, the doctor was a blockhead, and until

389
00:24:03,599 --> 00:24:06,680
the leg was healed, happily was kept tied to his bed,

390
00:24:07,039 --> 00:24:10,440
with the imaginary moth crawling over him. It never left

391
00:24:10,519 --> 00:24:12,640
him while he was awake, and it grew to a

392
00:24:12,720 --> 00:24:16,119
monster in his dreams. While he was awake, he longed

393
00:24:16,160 --> 00:24:20,359
for sleep, and from sleep he awoke screaming. So now

394
00:24:20,640 --> 00:24:23,480
happily is spending the remainder of his days in a

395
00:24:23,519 --> 00:24:26,640
padded room, worried by a moth that no one else

396
00:24:26,680 --> 00:24:31,200
can see. The asylum doctor calls it hallucination, but happily,

397
00:24:31,839 --> 00:24:34,319
when he is in his easier mood and can talk,

398
00:24:34,759 --> 00:24:37,799
says it is the ghost of porkins, and consequently a

399
00:24:37,880 --> 00:24:42,039
unique specimen and well worth the trouble of catching end

400
00:24:42,119 --> 00:24:44,839
of a moth. Genius unknown,