Diary of a Drug Fiend

278 The Diary of a Drug Fiend Lou must have caught my thought. She quoted sarcastically :— “OQ woodman, spare that tree, Touch not a single bough, In youth it sheltered me And I’ll protect it n-yow!”’ Since the war, women are taking a very peculiar attitude. I didn’t like the tone of the conversation. I instinctively looked to Maisie Jacobs for support. The Jewish tradition, which is, after all, the founda- tion of the so-called Christian point of view, could surely ‘be trusted. But Maisie merely retorted with some verses from Heine which showed that she was entirely on the enemy’s side. “Lamus noticed my annoyance, and hastily changed the conversation. “I’m afraid the only thing you can do,” he said to me, ‘‘is to chain yourself to Buckingham Palace and then go on hunger-strike, until they give you permission to vote more early and often than ever, after which you won't care to go to the polls at all. That’s another example of the same old story. However little we want a thing, we howl if we discover that we can’t get it; and the moment we've got it the whole business drops out of sight. “You'll find it’s the same with your drugs. You've ‘practically hypnotised yourself into thinking you can’t do without them. It’s not a real need, as you know. It’s a false and perverse appetite ; and as soon as you get out of the way of thinking that it’s vitally impor- tant, you'll begin to forget how much you depend on it.” Well, of course, I could see the sense of that ; and I was glad to see how gay and light-hearted Lou had become under the influence of the idea. Maisie called Lamus away to the piano to sing another song.