H. de Vere Stacpoole and Margaret Stacpoole

“ Of the ten thousand only five thousand remained.”
“Five thousand in a month,” said Oppenshaw. “Well, you paid the price of your temporary youth. Tell me,” said he, “and be quite frank. What were you like when you were young? I mean in mind and conduct.”
Simon moved wearily.
“I was a fool for a while,” said he. “Then I suddenly checked myself and became sensible.”
Oppenshaw rapped twice with his fingers on his desk as if in triumph over his own perception.
“That clears matters,” said he. “You were undoubtedly suffering from Lethmann's disease.” ”

“ Well, Lethmann's disease is just this: a man, say of twenty, suddenly checked in the course of his youth, becomes practically another person. You, for instance, became or fancied you became another person; you suddenly checked yourself and became sensible, as you put it, but you did not destroy that old foolish self. Nothing is destructible in mind as long as the brain tissue is normal. You put it in prison, and after the lapse of many years, owing perhaps to some slight declension in brain power, it broke out, dominated you, and lived again. Youth must be served. ”

“ The others, I have suggested, are all impossible to your sense of amour propre, and besides that, there is the grave objection that they savor of force. It might have bad consequences to use force to what would be practically the subconscious mind. ”