"It is nearly always at night that my attacks come on--not every night, mind you--no, no--if they did I should soon have to be measured for my coffin, but it may be three or four times in the course of a week."
"Do you suffer much pain at those times?"
"The attacks are of two kinds. But it's not the painful bouts I dread most."
"What is the nature of your other attacks?"
"A feverish restlessness which effectually banishes sleep. Hour after hour I toss and turn, trying first one position and then another, seeking rest, but nowhere finding it. At such times I have no absolute pain. It is as if a slow fire were smouldering in my veins and gradually drying up every drop of moisture in my body. When morning breaks I feel as weak and helpless as a newborn child, and at such times I say to myself, 'I hope I shall not live to see another dawn.'"
"This is terrible. And such nights as those you speak of are interspersed with others of a more painful kind?"
"That is so. But, as I said before, although the cramp spasms are pretty stiff at times, I contrive to bear them with tolerable equanimity. They don't exhaust me nearly so much as the other attacks do."
"Would it not be more satisfactory (pardon the question) if you were to seek further medical advice--a second opinion, I mean?"
"It will be time enough to do that when Hoskins himself suggests it. No man stands higher in his profession than he, and I have every confidence in him."
"That may be, sir, but the simple question remains--does he understand your case?"