Diary of a Drug Fiend

144 The Diary of a Drug Fiend . Cockie came back for lunch with a very long face. Mr. Wolfe gave him a good talking-to about money. Well, that’s perfectly right. We had been going the pace. Cockie wanted to take me out and buy me some jewellery to replace what was stolen; but I wouldn’t let him, except a new watch and a wedding ring. I’ve got a horrid feeling about that. It’s frightfully unlucky to lose your wedding ring. I feel as if the new one didn’t belong to me at all. We had a long talk about Gretel being away. We tried one or two places, but they wouldn’t give us any. I wish Cockie had taken out his diploma. ' The papers are disgusting. It’s the silly season, right enough. Every time one picks one up, there’s something about cocaine. That old fool Platt is on the war-path. He wants to “ arouse public opinion to a sense of the appalling danger which threatens the manhood and womanhood of England.”’ One paper had a long speech of his reported in full. He says it's the plot of the Germans to get even with us.Of course, I’m only a woman and all that ; but it sounds to me rather funny. | We went to tea with Mabel Black. Every one was talking about drugs. Every one seemed to want them ;. yet Lord Landsend had just come back from Germany and he said you could buy it quite easily there, but nobody seemed to want to. Then is the whole German people in a silent con- spiracy to destroy us? I never took much stock in all those stories about the infernal cunning of the Hun. We heard a“lot about the underground traffic, though, and I think we ought to be able to get it pretty easily.. I don’ t know what’s the matter with us both. It made us a bit better to meet the old crowd, and we thought we'd celebrate.