Hoover paused a moment. He had a large experience of mental cases. Then he said:
“You will be perfectly free here. You can come downstairs and do as you like. We have some very nice men staying here and you are free to amuse yourself. I’ll just ask you this, not to go outside the grounds till your health is perfectly established. This is not a prison, it’s a sanatorium. Colonel Hawker is here for gout and Major Barstowe for neuritis, got it in India. You will like them. There are several others who make up my household—you can come on down with me now—are you a billiard player?”
“Yes, I can play—but, see here, before we go down, where is this place?—I don’t even know what part of the country it’s in.”
“Sandbourne-on-sea,” replied Hoover, leading the way from the room.
Now in London on the night before, something had happened. Dr. Simms, at a dinner-party, given by Doctor Took of Bethlem Hospital had, relative to the imagination of lunatics, given an instance:
“Only to-day,” said Simms, “I had a case in point. A man gave me as his supposed address, one thousand one hundred and ninety one, Walnut Street, Philadelphia.”
“But there is a Walnut Street, Philadelphia,” said Took, “and it’s ten miles long, and the numbers run up well towards that.”
Half an hour later, Simms got into his carriage.
“Savoy Hotel, Strand,” said he to the coachman.