Diary of a Drug Fiend

Out of Harm's Way 303 Pll cure you, and I’ll take you away with me. But will you let me make one condition? ” She lifted her face to his. In spite of the physical wreckage of the last few months, love was able to transform her bodily. She was radiantly beautiful. She only waited for him to take her in his arms. She was trembling all over with ecstatic passion. I gripped the arms of my chair in futile rage. Before my very face the only woman I had ever loved had disowned me, cast me off with contempt, and was offering herself to another man with the same impulsive ardour that she had once shown toward me. No, by all the powers of hell, it was worse! For I had wooed her rapturously ; and he had made no effort. “One condition? ’’ her voice rang high and clear through the studio. “I’m giving you myself, my Lord and lover ; body and soul to have and to hold. What do conditions matter to me?” “Well,” said King Lamus, “ it’s really only a small condition ; and to prove that I keep my promises, I must keep them all round. You see, I promised to cure Sir Peter, too, and so my condition is that he comes with us.”’ She sprang to her feet as if a cobra had struck her. Her long arms wrestled against the unresisting air. The humiliation was unspeakable. Lamus put his pipe away in his pocket, rose to his feet, and stretched himself like some great lazy lion. He took her in his arms and held her firmly, fixing his eyes upon her tortured face ; the long jagged scarlet mouth stretched to a tragic square through which the scream refused to come. He shook her shoulders gently. Her rigid muscles began to relax. “It’s a deal, then, little girl,”’ he said. Her mouth closed, and then curled itself into a smile of exquisite happiness. The sombre fire of lust died out of her eyes. They kindled with the light of under- standing.