The Shadow

I am neither a roué nor a degenerate; yet there are days when certain visions rise so definitely before me and I am a prey to such violent desires that if hitherto I have been able to resist their attraction it is impossible for me to say whether an hour hence I shall be able to do so. At other times I feel strangely weary as though I had just accomplished some gigantic task. I feel that my bones are broken my muscles torn and it is when I wake up that I feel this--when I wake up after eight hours sleep and rest following no excess and troubled by no dreams. . . . I also have fits of inexplicable rage; of fury that would urge me to any crime; preconceived dislikes; I am so sensitive and excitable that a word a gesture are sufficient to unhinge me: I suffer almost physically from all these things.