Diary of a Drug Fiend

286 The Diary of a Drug Fiend That was not what was wrong with Mr. Jabez Platt ! Gretel Webster was a mistress of the social arts, yet all her skill in small talk could not camouflage the artificial character of the visit. She saw it herself, and took advantage of the fact to ask Lou to take her in her bedroom and “talk clothes and leave dear Sir Peter and Mr. Platt to get better acquainted with each other.” But the process did not promise to be rapid. Dear Sir Peter and Mr. Platt seemed to have nothing to say to each other; dear Sir Peter did his best to offer cigars, cigarettes, and various drinks to relieve the tension, but Mr. Platt’s Roman virtue did not permit him to indulge in such things. Mr. Platt, however, was so sensible of the hospitality of dear Sir Peter that he felt obliged to ask dear Sir Peter’s opinion of—and he suddenly whipped a ten- gramme bottle of cocaine out of his coat-tail pocket. “We believe,”’ he said, “ that this is a particularly puresample. There is strong scientific reason to believe,” he explained, and the atmosphere of the pulpit positively radiated from him, “‘ that it is not the drug itself but the impurities so often associated with it by careless manufacture that are responsible for the deplorable effects occasionally observed in persons who take it, whether for legitimate or other reasons.” To say that I sat stupefied is a gross understatement of the case. My astonishment prevented me recognising for a moment that my heart was bounding and leaping . within me at the sight of the drug. “ T should really value your opinion as a connoisseur,” continued Platt. There was something tremulous in his voice, as if he were keeping hold on himself by some incredible effort of will.. I positively stammered. “Why, Mr. Platt,” I said, ‘I thought you were so anxious to stop the use of the drug altogether. I thought