BEAIN TROUBLES. 303 



occasion to utter. Sometimes the tendency becomes 

 exceedingly annoying a circumstance which, though 

 not necessarily indicating serious mischief, must be 

 regarded as a warning not to be neglected. On one 

 occasion, a time of great domestic trouble, I was 

 haunted for two or three days in succession by these 

 three chords, repeated in the way here indicated. 



D.C. ad inf. ^ 



frfr-4- 



a -tf j-^ - -& <9-&~o-&-ig- 



They had been first heard (or imagined, perhaps) 

 during church-time on a calm, still Sunday, when, 

 after several days of cold and bitter winter weather, 

 the sun shone brightly, and the air was warm and 

 pleasant. There was illness " even unto death " in the 

 house, and a loss such as changes the colour of life 

 was approaching. But probably, long and anxious 

 night-watching had more to do with this strange 

 affection of the mind than anxiety or sorrow. The 

 haunting chords ceased only during sleep (a trained 

 nurse had the evening before taken my place) ; when 

 consciousness returned, after heavy dreamless sleep, 

 the chords were heard again, now loud and clear, 

 anon distant and indistinct, usually in slow succession, 

 with rather long intervals between each triplet, but at 

 times less slowly and with scarcely the intermission 

 of a single bar's rest. At another time, I should 

 probably have been rendered exceedingly anxious by 

 the monotonous repetition of these mental chords, 



