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Page 1 of 91922 · PDF PAGE 52
… out the sea- plane as another man might get out a cigarette from his case. She started like an eagle. With the whirr of the engine came Lou’s soft smooth voice in exquisite antiphony :— “O Thou trembling breast of the night, that gleamest with a rosary of moons! I adore Thee, Evoe! I adore Thee, I A O!” We soared towards the dawn. I went straight to over three thousand. I could hear the beat of my heart. It was one with the beat of the engine. I took the pure unsullied air into my lungs. It was an octave to cocaine; the same invigorating spiri…
1922 · PDF PAGE 37
…O Thou Dragon-prince of the air, that art drunk on the blood of the sunsets! I adore Thee, Evoe! I adore Thee, I A O!” A wild pang of jealousy stabbed me. It was a livid, demoniac spasm. For some reason or other I had connected this verse of Lou’s mysterious chant with the personality of King Lamus. Gretel Webster understood. She insinuated another dose of venom. _ “Oh yes, Mr. Basil King Lamus is quite the ladies’ man. He fascinates them with a thousand different tricks. Lou is dreadfully in love with him.” Once again the woman had made a mist…
1922 · PDF PAGE 323
… some one down to bring you along.” He waved his hand and strode up the hill with the steady swinging step of the practised mountaineer. Lou’s hand crept into mine. We were alone with nature. A new feeling had been born in us. The sense of personality had somehow faded out. I drew her gently into my arms; and we exchanged a long kiss such as we had never done before. We were not kissing each other. We were parts of the picture, whose natural expression it was to kiss. “‘ Hadn’t we better go on ? ” said Lou after a while, releasing herself. But …
1922 · PDF PAGE 325
…ugged at our arms. | ““ Now Di,” said Hermes, “ you know it’s wrong to pull at people like that. It’s one of the rules,” he explained to Lou, “ not to interfere with people. Big Lion says that every one would get on all right if only he were left alone.” He seemed to think the statement required explana- tion. ‘“‘ Cypris is reading Gibbon to us this week ; and she shows us how all the trouble came from people meddling with other people’s business.” I shouted with laughter. “Gibbon?” I cried, “What next, I wonder? ” “Well, one must know Roman hi…
1922 · PDF PAGE 312
…, but I couldn’t help fidgeting. I wanted to get down to business. I could feel that something urgent was on hand. I didn’t like the way Lou was acting. She stayed so absolutely still and silent, it was uncanny. Lamus had taken three matches to light his pipe and it kept on going out between almost every puff. By- and-by he threw it angrily on the carpet and lighted a cigar. There was a club fender round the grate. Maisie was sitting on it swinging her legs impatiently. We all seemed to be waiting for something to happen and it was as if nobody…
1922 · PDF PAGE 120
…wouldn’t mean much, no doubt, to any one who spoke Italian. To me, it was a master-key of magic. I connected it somehow with my love for Lou. Everything was a symbol of my love for Lou except when that idiotic nuisance, knowledge, declared the contrary. We were whirling in this tremendous trance all the morning. There kept on coming into my mind the title of a picture I had once seen by some crazy modern painter: ‘‘ Four red monks carrying a black goat across the snow to Nowhere.” It was obviously an excuse for a scheme of colour ; but the fant…
1922 · PDF PAGE 70
56 The Diary of a Drug Fiend ways, what price Lou! Queerest card in the pack, and I love her. ‘“‘ Give me another sniff off your hand.” Lou laughed like a chime of bells in Moscow on Easter ~ morning. Remember, the Russian Easter is not the same time as our Easter. They slipped up a fortnight one way or the other—I never can remember which— as long as you know what I mean. She threw the empty silk bag in the air, and caught it in her teeth with a passionate snap, which sent me nearly out of my mind again. I would have loved to be a bird, and ha…
1922 · PDF PAGE 107
…other, with the pos- sibility of European repudiation looming behind them all. As a family man, it was my duty to buy as many jewels for Lou as I could afford. At the same time, one has to be cautious. I bought the things I mentioned and paid for them. I refused to be tempted by a green pearl tie pin for myself, though I should have liked to have had it be- cause it would have reminded me of Lou’s eyes every time I put it on. But it was really rather expensive, and Mr. Wolfe had warned me very seriously about getting into debt, so I paid for th…
1922 · PDF PAGE 47
…n’t know how to behave. A thought popped into my mind: it was simply fatigue—I needn’t bother about that. As if in answer to my thought, Lou took a small cut-glass bottle with a gold-chased top from her pocket, unscrewed it and shook out some cocaine on the back of her hand. She flashed a provocative glance in my direction. The studio suddenly filled with the reverberation of her chant :— ‘“O Thou naked virgin of love, that art caught in a net of wild roses! I adore Thee, Evoe! I adore Thee, I A O!” ‘‘ Quite so,” agreed King Lamus cheerfully. “…
1922 · PDF PAGE 36
…ry of a Drug Fiend “O Thou crimson vintage of life, that art poured into the jar of the grave! I adore Thee, Evoe! I adore Thee, I A O!” Lou reached the table, with its dirty, crazy cloth, at which we were sitting. She looked straight into my eyes, though I am sure she did not see me. “O Thou red cobra of desire, that art unhooded by the hands of girls! I adore Thee, Evoe! I adore Thee, I A O!” | She went back from us like a purple storm-cloud, sun-crested. torn from the breasts of the morning by some invisible lightning. “‘Q Thou burning sword…
1922 · PDF PAGE 118
…Many a green isle needs must be In this wide sea of misery.” , Everything he had touched with his penhad blossomed into immortality. And Lou and I were’ living in the land which his prophetic eyes had seen. © I thought of that incomparable idyll, I will not call it an island, to which he invites Emilia, in Epipsychidion. Lou and I, my love and I, my wife and I, we were not merely going there;- we had always been there and should always be. For the name of the island, the name of the house, the name of Shelley, and the name of Lou and me, they w…
1922 · PDF PAGE 149
The Bubble Bursts 135 “‘T don’t understand this at all,’’ and he bustled round to his desk. ‘‘ Where’s our courier ?”’ called out Lou. “It’s for him to explain everything.” The manager became violently solemn. “Your Ladyship is undoubtedly right,” he broke out. But the conventional words did not conceal the fact that his mental attitude was that of a man who has suddenly fallen through a trap-door into a cellar full of something spiky. ‘‘ There’s some mistake here,” he went on. ‘ Let me see.” He called to the girl at the desk in Italian. She fi…
1922 · PDF PAGE 45
Over the Top ! 31 Who had given the address to the man, and where were we ? I can only suppose that, consciously or subconsciously, Lou had done it, for she showed no embarrassment in pressing the electric bell. The door opened immediately. I was snowed under by an avalanche of crimson light that poured from a vast studio. Lou’s voice soared high and clear :— ‘“‘O Thou scarlet dragon of flame, enmeshed in the web of a spider! I adore Thee, Evoe! I adore Thee, I A O!” A revulsion of feeling rushed over me like a storm ; for in the doorway, with …
1922 · PDF PAGE 137
… noticed it at once, and leered with a horrible chuckle. ‘‘ All right, mister,’’ he said. “ No offence meant,” and he threw an arm round Lou’s neck, and made a movement to kiss her. I was on my feet in a second, and swung my right to his jaw. It knocked him off the bench, and he lay flat. | In a moment the uproar began. All my old fighting instincts flashed to the surface. I realised instantly that we were in for the very row that Feccles had so wisely warned us to avoid. _ The whole crowd—men and women—were on their feet. They were rushing at …
1922 · PDF PAGE 114
… manager’s receipt, and tell him to send the papers on to the Caligula at Capri. I started to count out the cash. We were sitting in the lounge. A sense of absolute bewilderment and helplessness came over me. “TI say, Lou,’ I stammered, “I wish you'd count this. I can’t make it come right. I think I must have been going a bit too hard.” She went through the various pockets of my porte- feuille. ‘““Haven’t you some money in your pocket?” she said. I went through myself with sudden anxiety. I had money in nearly every pocket ; but it only amounte…
1922 · PDF PAGE 40
… at the time. I do not think I have explained with sufficient emphasis the mental state to which I had been reduced by the appearance of Lou. She had become so far beyond my dreams—the unattainable. Leaving out of account the effect of the alcohol, this had left me with an intolerable depression. There was something brutish, something of the baffled rat, in my consciousness. “OQ Thou vampire Queen of the Flesh, wound as a snake around the throats of men! I adore Thee, Evoe! I adore Thee, I A O!” Was she thinking of Gretel or of herself? Her bea…
1922 · PDF PAGE 95
The Giitter on the Snow 81 simply swept away by social engagements. I haven’t a thing for a week.” And just then the telephone rang. Lou did a two- step across to the instrument. “Qh, it’s for you, Mr. Feccles,” she said. ‘‘ However did any one know you were here? ”’ He gave his funny little laugh. “It’s just what I’ve been telling you, Lady Pen- dragon,” he said, as he walked over to the receiver. “I’m a very much wanted man. Every one seems. to want me but the police,” he giggled, ‘“ and they may get on to me any minute now, the Lord knows.” …
1922 · PDF PAGE 113
…was all kinds of a scoundrel. Every one said so. Why did he want to butt in? Nobody asked him to meddle. I said something of the sort to Lou, and she told him off very wittily. “You've saidit, Cockie,” she cried. ‘‘ He’s a meddler, and his nature is to be rotten before he’s ripe.” I remembered something of.the sort in Shakespeare. That was the best of Lou; she was brilliantly clever, but she never forced it down one’s throat. At the same time, as I said, the man stuck in my gizzard. It annoyed me so much that we took a lot more cocaine to get t…
1922 · PDF PAGE 44
…kes one—rhythm seems to come natural—everything is one grand harmony. It is impossible that anything should be out of tune. The voice of Lou seemed to come from an enormous distance, a deep, low, sombre chant :— “© Thou low moan of fainting maids, that art caught up in the strong sobs of Love! I adore Thee, Evoe! I adore Thee, I A O!” | That was it—her engine and my engine for the first time working together! All the accidents had disappeared. There was nothing but the unison of two rich racing rhythms. You know how it is when you are flying—vy…
1922 · PDF PAGE 41
…he ground on one’s good days. I found myself in the middle of the floor without knowing how I had got there. I, too, was walking on air. Lou turned, her mouth a scarlet orb, as I have seen the sunset over Belgium, over the crinkled line of shore, over the dim blue mystic curve of sea and sky; with the thought in my mind beating in tune with my excited heart. We didn’t miss the arsenal this time. I was the arsenal too. I had exploded. I was the slayer and the slain ! And there sailed Lou across the sky to meet me. “‘O Thou outrider of the Sun, t…