Ihsan laughed and Moïse looked uncomfortable. (I must admit it was unpleasant for him to have to translate these things about himself.)
“Look at him!” I said. “He knows what I am going to say next, and he is afraid. He stole all our money on the way to Angora. Arrest him for it! I tell you he is in league with the English. Arrest him and hang him!”
“You are mad, my friend,” said Ihsan. “You are mad. That’s what’s the matter with you!”
I stared at him, open-mouthed.
“I’m a specialist,” he went on, “and I know. You’re mad!”
“I don’t know whether you are a specialist or not,” I said angrily, “but I do know you are a most phenomenal liar. I am no more mad than you are. This is a plot, that’s what it is, and you are all in league against me. You are jealous of me—that’s what’s the matter—jealous of me. You know my brain is better a tenfold, a hundredfold, a thousand million millionfold, than yours, and you are jealous! You know I am rich and great and powerful and you are jealous. So you say I am mad. How dare you say I am mad without even examining me?”
“I’ve been examining you all along,” said Ihsan, laughing. “Go back to bed.”
“I won’t!” I said. “I must put this right”—an orderly took me by the arm but I shook him off. “Look here!” I expostulated, “let me explain! I’m sorry I said you were jealous—I see it all now. Let me explain. I see it all now. Let me explain, will you?”
Ihsan Bey signed to the orderly to leave me alone, and I continued.
“I’m not mad. You are puzzled in the same way that M—— was puzzled. You are making this mistake because you’re a specialist, that’s what it is. You specialists are all the same. I’m a strong man, strong enough to fight any six men in this room. I’ve got a heart like a sledgehammer. I’m sound all through. But if I went to a heart specialist he would find something wrong with my heart, and if I went to a stomach specialist he’d find something wrong with my stomach, and if I went to a liver specialist he’d find something wrong with my liver. You are all the same, you doctors. Because you happen to be a brain specialist you say there’s something wrong with my brain. That’s what it is, and you’re a liar! I’m not, NOT mad!”