NUMBER THIRTEEN
RECLINING on a huge velvet divan, puffing at his water-pipe lazily, Astro read to the last page of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and then tossed the paper-covered book on the floor with a grunt.
Valeska looked up from her work, ready for his comment.
"If Stevenson had written that book this year, he'd have known more about dissociated personality," he remarked.
"Why, it's nothing but a parable, that's all," Valeska offered.
"Well, it might be more; it might be science as well. The fundamental idea is wrong. We haven't only two souls or personalities apiece, one good, one bad; we have an infinite number, according to modern psychology. Our normal self can break up into any number of combinations of its elements. That is why we are different persons when we're angry, when we dream, when we are drunk or insane."
"But isn't there a subconscious self that runs the body at such times?" said Valeska. "I've been reading about it. Some psychologists call it the 'subliminal' self."
"Rubbish!" Astro rose and walked up and down nervously. "They are not psychologists; they are
