'
He was very proud and shy, and I could not imagine anybody asking
him questions, and so I was content to take these stories as they
came, confirmations of stories I had heard in boyhood. One story
in particular had stirred my imagination, for, ashamed all my
boyhood of my lack of physical courage, I admired what was beyond
my imitation. He thought that any weakness, even a weakness of
body, had the character of sin, and while at breakfast with his
brother, with whom he shared a room on the third floor of a corner
house, he said that his nerves were out of order. Presently he
left the table, and got out through the window and on to a stone
ledge that ran along the wall under the windowsills. He sidled
along the ledge, and turning the corner with it, got in at a
different window and returned to the table. 'My nerves,' he said,
'are better than I thought.'
XIV
Nettleship said to me: 'Has Edwin Ellis ever said anything about
the effect of drink upon my genius?' 'No,' I answered. 'I ask,' he
said, 'because I have always thought that Ellis has some strange
medical insight.
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