Below the Brutes QOL
name. The sight of it drove me almost insane with
desire.
Within a yard of my face was the symbol of victory.
Cockie, Basil, the law, my own physical pangs :—
they were allin my power from the moment my fingers
closed over the bottle.
I put out my hand; but the heroin had disappeared
in the manner of a conjuring trick.
McCall leant his weight on the back of my chair afd
tilted it slightly. His ugly shrewd false face was within
a foot of mine.
“Will you really let me have that?” I faltered.
“ Sir Peter’s very rich. We can afford to pay the
price, whatever it is.’
He gave a funny little laugh. JI shrank from the long
wolf-like mouth hanging over me greedily open, with
its bared two white rows of sharp, long fangs.
I was nauseated by the stale whisky in his breath.
He understood immediately; let my chair back to
its normal position, and went back to his desk. He
sat there and watched me eagerly like a man stalking
game. As if inadvertently, he took out the bottle and
played with it aimlessly.
In his smooth varnished voice he began to tell me
what he called the romance of his life. The first time
he saw me he had fallen passionately in love with me ;
but he was a married man, and his sense of honour
prevented his yielding to his passion. He had, of
course, no love for his wife, who didn’t understand him
at all. He had married her out of pity; but for all
that he was bound by his sense of right feeling, and
above all by realising that to give rein to his passion,
God-given though it was, would mean social ruin for
me, for the woman he loved.
He went on to talk about affinities and soul-mates
and love at first sight. He reproached himself for
having told me the truth, even now, but it had been
too strong for him. The irony of fate! The tragic
absurdity of social restrictions!