'I don't understand,' said George, bewildered. 'Say it all again.'
Athelstan repeated his words.
'That is my discovery, too,' said Elsie. 'Now you know all, as you understand.'
'But I don't understand. How can one man be another man?'
'I sat beside one man,' Athelstan added, 'for an hour and more; and lo! all the time he was another man.'
'And still I am fogged. What does it mean?'
'It means, George, what you would never suspect. The one man received me as a stranger. He knew nothing about me: he had never heard my name, even. Yet the other man knows me so well. It was very odd at first. I felt as if I was talking to a sleep-walker.'
'Oh!' cried George, 'I know now. You have seen Mr. Dering in a kind of sleep-walking state— I too have seen him thus. But he said nothing.'
'You may call it sleep-walking if you like. But, George, there is another and a more scientific name for it. The old man is mad. He has fits of madness, during which he plays another part, under another name. Now, do you understand?'
'Yes—but—is it possible?'