In the open space behind the theatre stood the second of these wooden apparitions.

George looked at it, and again stood still.
"What's the matter ?" said Harris, kindly.

"You are not ill, are you ?" "I don't believe this is the shortest way," said George.
"I assure you it is," persisted Harris.
"Well, I'm going the other," said George; and he turned and went, we, as before, following him.
Along the Ferdinand Strasse Harris and I talked about private lunatic asylums, which, Harris said, were not well managed in England.

He said a friend of his, a patient in a lunatic asylum-- George said, interrupting: "You appear to have a large number of friends in lunatic asylums." He said it in a most insulting tone, as though to imply that that is where one would look for the majority of Harris's friends.

But Harris did not get angry; he merely replied, quite mildly: "Well, it really is extraordinary, when one comes to think of it, how many of them have gone that way sooner or later.