“Pilot knows me, and John and Mary know I am here. I came only this evening,” I answered.

“Great God!⁠—what delusion has come over me? What sweet madness has seized me?”

“No delusion⁠—no madness: your mind, sir, is too strong for delusion, your health too sound for frenzy.”

“And where is the speaker? Is it only a voice? Oh! I cannot see, but I must feel, or my heart will stop and my brain burst. Whatever⁠—whoever you are⁠—be perceptible to the touch or I cannot live!”

He groped; I arrested his wandering hand, and prisoned it in both mine.

“Her very fingers!” he cried; “her small, slight fingers! If so there must be more of her.”

The muscular hand broke from my custody; my arm was seized, my shoulder⁠—neck⁠—waist⁠—I was entwined and gathered to him.