Murphy. The Magdalene Mental Mersey seat lay a little way out of town,

ideally situated in its own grounds on the boundary of two counties.

In order to die in the one surefulty rather than the other, some patients had

merely to move up, or be moved up a little in the bed. This sometimes proved a great

convenience. It was here, the Magdalene Mental Mercy seat, that Murphy had come at the behest

of the poet Austin Ticklepenny to relieve him of

his duties as a nurse.

It's driving me mad, Ticklepenny had said.

Myself now degraded to the position of a male nurse in a hospital for the better class

mentally deranged.

It is hard to say where the fault lies in the case of Ticklepenny, whether with the soul,

the stream, or the lips, but certainly the quality of his speech is most wretched.

Ticklepenny had been in the employ of the Mersey's seat just one week, and now, after a bare week in the wards,

he felt as if he could not go on.

It all struck Murphy as a rather pretentious fear of going mad.

The head male nurse, Mr. Thomas Bim Clinch, a huge red, bald, whiskered man of overweening ability and authority in his own

department had a fancy for Ticklepenny, not far short of love. It was largely thanks to this that

Ticklepenny had been taken on in the first place. It was largely thanks to it now that Murphy was taken on in

Ticklepenny's stead. He would take Murphy on a month's probation and released Ticklepenny from

his contract when Murphy had completed his month and not before. Ticklepenny would be paid for the

ten days he had served. Thus, Ticklepenny would be paid for the ten days he had served.

Thus, Ticklepenny was made security for Murphy.

...