The smell of food revolted him, and he left the supper-table, going up to his bare and lamentable room with the feeling that he was about to undergo a long spell of sickness.
In the deserted hall, between the elevator and the door of his room, the second crisis came upon him all at once.

It was so sudden that it was as if some enemy had leaped upon his back, springing out of the shadow, gripping him from behind, holding him close.

Once more the hysteria shook him like a dry leaf.

The little nervous starts came so fast that they ran together, mingling to form one long thrill of terror, the blind, unreasoning terror of something unknown; the numbness weighed down upon his brain until consciousness dwindled to a mere point and mercifully dulled the torture of his crisping nerves.

It seemed to him that his hands and head were rapidly swelling to enormous size.
All this he had felt before; it was his old enemy, but now with this second attack began a new and even stranger sensation.