MR. Y. [Springs up and gets his things together]. Wait a moment.
MR. X. What for?
M$. Y. [Stammering]. I only thought—that as I'm not needed—I wouldn't need to be present—and could go.
MR. X. You cannot. Sit down at your place at the table, where you've been sitting, and we will talk a little.
MR. Y. [Sits, after putting on a dark coat]. What's going to happen now?
MR. X. [Looking into mirror]. Now everything is clear to me! Ah!
MR. Y. [Worried]. What do you see now that's so remarkable?
MR. X. I see in the mirror that you are a thief, a simple, common thief. Just now, when you sat there in your shirt-sleeves, I noticed that something was wrong about my book-shelf, but I couldn't make out what it was, as I wanted to listen to you and observe you. Now, since you have become my antagonist, my sight is keener, and since you have put on that black coat, that acts as a color contrast against the red backs of the books, which were not noticeable before against your red suspenders, I see that you have been there and read your forgery story in Bernheim's essay on hypnotic suggestion, and returned the book upside down. So you stole that story too! In consequence of all this I consider that I have the right to conclude that you committed your crime through need, or because you were addicted to pleasures.
MR. Y. Through need. If you knew—
MR. X. If you knew in what need I have lived, and lived, and still live! But this is no time for that. To continue, that you have served time is almost certain, but that was in America, for it was American prison life that you described; another thing is almost as certain—that you have not served out your sentence here.