Then there was an unwelcome shuffling of feet in the hall, the door was opened, and the professor entered with the doctor.
"Papa, papa!" exclaimed Mabel, turning to her father. "Do you know what Jamie says? He says he saw a gnome last night in the gorge, and that—"
"Yes, I did!" cried I, excitedly, and sprang up to seize my hat. "If nobody will believe me, I needn't stay here any longer. And if you doubt what I have been saying, I can show you—"
"My dear sir," said the doctor.
"My dear boy," chimed in the professor, and seized me round the waist to prevent me from escaping.
"My dear Jamie," implored Mabel, while the tears started to her eyes, "do keep quiet, do!"
The doctor and the professor now forced me back upon the sofa, and I had once more to resign myself to my fate.
"A most singular hallucination," said the professor, turning his round, good-natured face to the doctor. "A moment ago he observed that I was not a parrot, which necessarily must have been suggested by a previous hallucination that I was a parrot."
The doctor shook his head and looked grave.
"Possibly a very serious case," said he, "a case of ——," and he gave it a long Latin name, which I failed to catch. "It is well that I was called in time. We may still succeed in mastering the disease."