To repose
      confidence in the understanding or discretion of a madman, is to
      gain him body and soul. In this way we were enabled to dispense
      with an expensive body of keepers.”

      “And you had no punishments of any kind?”

      “None.”

      “And you never confined your patients?”

      “Very rarely. Now and then, the malady of some individual growing
      to a crisis, or taking a sudden turn of fury, we conveyed him to
      a secret cell, lest his disorder should infect the rest, and
      there kept him until we could dismiss him to his friends—for with
      the raging maniac we have nothing to do. He is usually removed to
      the public hospitals.”

      “And you have now changed all this—and you think for the better?”

      “Decidedly. The system had its disadvantages, and even its
      dangers. It is now, happily, exploded throughout all the _Maisons
      de Santé_ of France.”

      “I am very much surprised,” I said, “at what you tell me; for I
      made sure that, at this moment, no other method of treatment for
      mania existed in any portion of the country.”

      “You are young yet, my friend,” replied my host, “but the time
      will arrive when you will learn to judge for yourself of what is
      going on in the world, without trusting to the gossip of others. Believe nothing you hear, and only one-half that you see. Now
      about our _Maisons de Santé_, it is clear that some ignoramus has
      misled you. After dinner, however, when you have sufficiently
      recovered from the fatigue of your ride, I will be happy to take
      you over the house, and introduce to you a system which, in my
      opinion, and in that of every one who has witnessed its
      operation, is incomparably the most effectual as yet devised.”

      “Your own?” I inquired—“one of your own invention?”

      “I am proud,” he replied, “to acknowledge that it is—at least in
      some measure.”

      In this manner I conversed with Monsieur Maillard for an hour or
      two, during which he showed me the gardens and conservatories of
      the place. “I cannot let you see my patients,” he said, “just at present. To
      a sensitive mind there is always more or less of the shocking in
      such exhibitions; and I do not wish to spoil your appetite for
      dinner. We will dine. I can give you some veal a la Menehoult,
      with cauliflowers in _velouté_ sauce—after that a glass of Clos
      de Vougeot—then your nerves will be sufficiently steadied.”

      At six, dinner was announced; and my host conducted me into a
      large _salle à manger_, where a very numerous company were
      assembled—twenty-five or thirty in all. They were, apparently,
      people of rank—certainly of high breeding—although their
      habiliments, I thought, were extravagantly rich, partaking
      somewhat too much of the ostentatious finery of the _vielle
      cour_. I noticed that at least two-thirds of these guests were
      ladies; and some of the latter were by no means accoutred in what
      a Parisian would consider good taste at the present day. Many
      females, for example, whose age could not have been less than
      seventy were bedecked with a profusion of jewelry, such as rings,
      bracelets, and earrings, and wore their bosoms and arms
      shamefully bare. I observed, too, that very few of the dresses
      were well made—or, at least, that very few of them fitted the
      wearers. In looking about, I discovered the interesting girl to
      whom Monsieur Maillard had presented me in the little parlor; but
      my surprise was great to see her wearing a hoop and farthingale,
      with high-heeled shoes, and a dirty cap of Brussels lace, so much
      too large for her that it gave her face a ridiculously diminutive
      expression. When I had first seen her, she was attired, most
      becomingly, in deep mourning. There was an air of oddity, in
      short, about the dress of the whole party, which, at first,
      caused me to recur to my original idea of the “soothing system,”
      and to fancy that Monsieur Maillard had been willing to deceive
      me until after dinner, that I might experience no uncomfortable
      feelings during the repast, at finding myself dining with
      lunatics; but I remembered having been informed, in Paris, that
      the southern provincialists were a peculiarly eccentric people,
      with a vast number of antiquated notions; and then, too, upon
      conversing with several members of the company, my apprehensions
      were immediately and fully dispelled. The dining-room itself, although perhaps sufficiently comfortable
      and of good dimensions, had nothing too much of elegance about
      it. For example, the floor was uncarpeted; in France, however, a
      carpet is frequently dispensed with. The windows, too, were
      without curtains; the shutters, being shut, were securely
      fastened with iron bars, applied diagonally, after the fashion of
      our ordinary shop-shutters. The apartment, I observed, formed, in
      itself, a wing of the château, and thus the windows were on three
      sides of the parallelogram, the door being at the other. There
      were no less than ten windows in all. The table was superbly set out. It was loaded with plate, and
      more than loaded with delicacies. The profusion was absolutely
      barbaric. There were meats enough to have feasted the Anakim. Never, in all my life, had I witnessed so lavish, so wasteful an
      expenditure of the good things of life. There seemed very little
      taste, however, in the arrangements; and my eyes, accustomed to
      quiet lights, were sadly offended by the prodigious glare of a
      multitude of wax candles, which, in silver candelabra, were
      deposited upon the table, and all about the room, wherever it was
      possible to find a place. There were several active servants in
      attendance; and, upon a large table, at the farther end of the
      apartment, were seated seven or eight people with fiddles, fifes,
      trombones, and a drum. These fellows annoyed me very much, at
      intervals, during the repast, by an infinite variety of noises,
      which were intended for music, and which appeared to afford much
      entertainment to all present, with the exception of myself. Upon the whole, I could not help thinking that there was much of
      the bizarre about every thing I saw—but then the world is made up
      of all kinds of persons, with all modes of thought, and all sorts
      of conventional customs. I had travelled, too, so much, as to be
      quite an adept at the nil admirari; so I took my seat very coolly
      at the right hand of my host, and, having an excellent appetite,
      did justice to the good cheer set before me. The conversation, in the meantime, was spirited and general. The
      ladies, as usual, talked a great deal.