CHAPTER I.
AN ARTIST'S STUDIO.
In the winter of 188-, I was afflicted by a series of nervous ailments, brought on by overwork and overworry.

Chief among these was a protracted and terrible insomnia, accompanied by the utmost depression of spirits and anxiety of mind.

I became filled with the gloomiest anticipations of evil; and my system was strung up by slow degrees to such a high tension of physical and mental excitement, that the quietest and most soothing of friendly voices had no other effect upon me than to jar and irritate.

Work was impossible; music, my one passion, intolerable; books became wearisome to my sight; and even a short walk in the open air brought with it such lassitude and exhaustion, that I soon grew to dislike the very thought of moving out of doors.

In such a condition of health, medical aid became necessary; and a skilful and amiable physician, Dr.R----, of great repute in nervous ailments, attended me for many weeks, with but slight success.
He was not to blame, poor man, for his failure to effect a cure.