Diary of a Drug Fiend

CHAPTER II FIRST AID WHEN I woke, the winter sun was already high. It streamed upon my face through the glass skylight of the studio. The sensation of waking was itself a revelation. For months past I had been neither awake nor asleep ; simply passing from the state of greater to one of less unconsciousness. But this was a definite act. King Lamus had gone out, and Lala had only just returned, for she was taking off her furs as I woke. I had been covered with blankets. She came and took them off, and told me it was time to go and get my things from Greek Street and take them to the new rooms which she had engaged for us that morning. Lou, it seemed, was already there; and had fallen asleep again, said Lala, only a few minutes before she left. I could not help feeling a dislike for the way in which everything was being managed for me. I must have shown something of this in my manner. Lala, after bundling me into the automobile which I had driven to Barley Grange on that first tremendous night, began to turn the conversation so as to answer my unspoken resentment. She made a pleasant little excuse for not offering me the steering-wheel. I knew too well that I couldn't have driven that car a hundred yards through traffic. I had abdicated my manhood. I must resign myself to be driven where any one was willing to take me. I might count myself lucky if I had fallen into reasonably good hands. At Greek Street we met with a surprise. It appeared 262