He lies in a kind of dreamy stupor from morning to night." This struck me as excessively strange and by no means in agreement with the patient's energetic refusal to see a doctor.
"But," I asked, "does he never rouse completely ?" "Oh, yes," Mr.Weiss answered quickly; "he rouses from time to time and is then quite rational, and, as you may have gathered, rather obstinate.
That is the peculiar and puzzling feature in the case; this alternation between a state of stupor and an almost normal and healthy condition.
But perhaps you had better see him and judge for yourself.

He had a rather severe attack just now.

Follow me, please.

The stairs are rather dark." The stairs were very dark, and I noticed that they were without any covering of carpet, or even oil-cloth, so that our footsteps resounded dismally as if we were in an empty house.

I stumbled up after my guide, feeling my way by the hand-rail, and on the first floor followed him into a room similar in size to the one below and very barely furnished, though less squalid than the other.