CHAPTER XXVIII
THE SQUIRE'S STORY (CONTINUED)
"I left the barracks and made my way into the lowest and commonestquarter of the city. My own idea was to drown my thoughts, to forgetmyself, Edith, and the world, even if only for an hour or so. The sightof the familiar sign of the opium den over a low door stopped me in mymad ramble. Here was the chance of banishing my thoughts and misery. Ientered. A hideous old Chinaman barred my way, but satisfying himselfthat I was not an objectionable person, he turned and led me down intothe dark den itself. An unoccupied ottoman in a corner took my fancy. Iflung myself down. Simultaneously a soft voice asked me in English whatI required. At first I fancied I was a prey to my imagination. The voicewas so soft, so gentle, that I thought it was hers--Edith's.
"Then I looked round full into the face of a maiden who leaned over me,so close that I felt her warm breath on my cheek as she repeated thewords that had roused me from my drowsiness. She was in all respectsthe loveliest native girl I ever saw--so slim, so bright-eyed, and socharmingly clad, that for the moment I forgot my misery in contemplationof her exceptional beauty.
"'You speak English?' I remarked.
"'Yes, indeed,' she murmured, seating herself gracefully on the arm ofthe couch; 'it is so much prettier than my own language.'
"'And what are you doing in this--er--hell?' I could not refrain fromasking. She formed such a striking contrast to her surroundings.
"'Hush!' she responded quietly, and raised her finger in warning,placing it almost upon my lips. 'Hush, they may not all be asleep.' Andshe waved her arm, bare to the elbow, in the direction of the motionlessforms recumbent on the other couches in the cellar.
"'What is your name?' I whispered, as I perceived that she was notaverse to conversation.
"'Lilla,' she replied, blushing under her dark skin. I noticed that shehad a little pipe in her hand. 'Half?' she asked.
"'No,' I said, 'not yet. I want a talk. That is, if you don't mind.'
"Again she blushed, and settled herself down at the foot of the ottoman.'You know you're in danger here?' she muttered interrogatively.
"'Why?' I asked, in no way alarmed, though.
"'Well,' she replied, gazing into my eyes, 'queer things happen hereoccasionally which would cause some talk were they to become known.' Sheshrugged her little shoulders suggestively. She was certainly abewitching girl.
"'You are an officer?' she asked.
"'Yes,' I replied, foolishly betraying the fact, when, dressed as I wasin civilian attire, I might have passed as a merchant or some otherEnglish resident of the city.
"For the moment I confess I was bewitched--powerless in the hands of thedark-eyed girl whose life was spent in such strange surroundings.
"For many an hour we sat there--she at the foot, I at the head of thecouch, and our conversation disturbed a silence only broken occasionallyby the heavy breathing or moans of one or other of the motionlessfigures stretched round us.
"'Lilla' told me much about herself and about those that kept the den.The latter were a native and his Chinese wife, the parents of 'Lilla,'which was an abbreviation of some eight-syllabled name by which she wasknown in her peculiar family circle.
"Yes, she had always lived in the den, she told me, and had waited uponthe customers since a mere child. She was now only seventeen, andconfessed she was unmarried. She further told me that she intended doingwhat the English call marrying money, even questioning me, to myembarrassment, on my financial position.
"As the serpent bewitches, hypnotises, and eventually snares the rabbit,so I began to feel that this maiden of the opium den was beginning tobewitch me. Not that I was, or have been, an impressionable man,unusually susceptible to feminine attack, though I have, as you, my son,may have discovered, always been of a weak disposition. I do not know,either, whether, by permitting myself to fall a victim to 'Lilla's'charms, I was, in the words of a common expression, 'cutting off my noseto spite my face'--impotently avenging Edith's treatment of me byfalling in love--no other words express my behaviour--with the firstfemale I met after learning of what I believed to be her fickleinconstancy.
"I am more than inclined to think that the native girl was imbued withthose powers that so many of even the humblest Indian folks possess--apower that, unfortunately, is getting a firm rooting in thiscountry--that of mesmeric influence over a weaker mind!
"It will be sufficient for me to say that I found myself quitepowerless in the girl's hands. I told her the story of my life and lovewhen she requested me to do so. I seemed unable to hide anything fromher. I went so far as to mention that a severe punishment would resultwere it discovered that I had visited the den, the cholera thenravishing the country, and the troops, including the officers, beingunder special orders not to visit the particularly afflicted quarters ofthe town.
"And this remark of mine must have been the cause of all my futuretrouble and misery--and, probably, of my death!
"The first day I remained in ignorance of the secrets of the opium den,and of that of opium smoking. But when I left, long after nightfall, itwas with a promise on my lips that I would return next day, and I did.Strive as I might I could not battle against the invisible power thatdrew me, on the following afternoon, to the low opium den.
"This time I was horrified on entering the dim cellar to see Lillacurled up on a sofa with the stem of an opium pipe between her pearlyteeth. Otherwise the room was empty. Not until afterwards did I discoverthe reason, which was that one of the visitors of the previous day hadbeen seized with the terrible disease, and that either he hadcommunicated the scourge to the other smokers who haunted the den, orthe habitues had been too frightened by what they saw to return!
"On closer investigation I discovered that a glass of neat spirit stoodon the table at the girl's right hand! That the lovely young girl was anopium smoker and a drinker of undiluted spirit seemed too horrible.Instinctively I recoiled from her, and as she seemed half asleep,commenced to make my way from the room.
"The sounds I made caused her to awake.
"'Ah! it is the Sahib,' she murmured; 'come, come, and kiss Lilla.'
"How I had been deceived! How blind I had been! The girl who hadbewitched and fascinated me on the previous day was now revealed in hertrue light. Now she seemed something despicable, hateful, loathsome. Thebeauty that I admired seemed to have vanished. The creature now appearedto be hideous. Whether the revulsion of feeling caused a permanentblindness of my eyes to her beauty I cannot say. Knowing what I do ofIndia and its mysteries--mysteries that scientists have failed tosolve--I am more than inclined to think that the girl was never sobeautiful as she first appeared to me. My very eyes had been deceivedbefore now by the marvellous tricks of the native conjurers and fakirs.In my own mind, I have no shadow of doubt that the girl Lilla, by thepowers she possessed, led me to imagine the charms I had only a daybefore seen in her, and by means of which she had fascinated me.
"Her words and the sight of her enraged as well as disgusted me.
"'You she-devil!' I shouted. Then I stopped because words failed me.
"The girl showed no astonishment at the epithet I had bestowed upon her.Instead, she softly stepped down from the sofa and glided, snake-like itseemed to me, towards where I stood.
"'You shall kiss me,' she hissed, and again I was impressed by herresemblance to a serpent.
"Even when I attempted to cast her away as she crept nearer and nearerto me I felt that I was powerless. My loathing for this creature wasnone the less, yet I could not prevent her from pressing those cruelthin lips, that had seemed so rosy and fascinating on the previous day,against my cheek.
"'There,' she whispered; 'I knew you loved me, Harold. You must marryme!'
"You fiend!' I shrieked; 'I detest you--I loathe your very existence.Away! I will not stay for another moment under the same roof with you.Sorceress, you have ensnared me, but----'
"'My love,' she replied, beneath her breath, 'as you say, you areensnared. You are mine. You shall
not leave this house until you areeven more mine--until you are my husband.'
"Then as she spoke I suddenly became aware of the fact that a face waspeering through the half-closed door of the den--a shrivelled, yellowface, with oval slits of eyes, which were directed towards me.
"Then, evidently perceiving I was aware of this fact, the door waspushed open, and a hideous Chinese woman shuffled in, at once engagingLilla in conversation in her native tongue.
"From what I gathered the woman was the mother of the girl!
"With startling suddenness the elder female turned on me after amoment's conversation with Lilla.
"'Sahib likee mazinloree?' she said with an intonation that implied aquestion.
"I shook my head, not understanding the creature's remark.
"'She says, "Does the gentleman like his mother-in-law?"' explainedLilla, with a leering laugh.
"'I have had enough of this nonsense,' I shouted, bubbling over withrage; 'let me pass or I shall clear you both out of the way.'
"'No marry this girlee?' asked the old hag.
"'No, once again,' I exclaimed, and I thrust the woman to one side, andfound myself in the dark passage.
"'Ha--ha--ha!' screamed Lilla; 'how will you like it when we tell theGeneral where you have been?'
"I stopped short, horrified by her words. At once I saw how I had been'let in.' The diabolical cunning of the enchantress--the siren--was onlytoo plain. Unless I married Lilla she would report my visit to theforbidden quarter to the commanding officer at the barracks.
"'Tell me,' I said, ill-disguising my rage, 'how much you want!'
"'Hundred thousand seventee hundred 'pees,' giggled the old woman.
"'Nothing,' laconically remarked Lilla.
"'Name your price, you witch,' I said to the girl.
"'Your love,' she replied, in a tone that caused me to exercise all myself-control to prevent myself from striking her.
"There was the soft pat-pat of footsteps in the passage; then I felt atap on my shoulder.
"Turning, I confronted a gigantic Hindoo in gorgeous costume, who hadcome upon us from whence I did not know.
"'This is the man?' he asked Lilla in Hindustani, a language with whichI had a passing acquaintance.
"The girl replied in the affirmative. 'He refuses,' she added.
"The other evidently knew who I was, for, learning this intelligence, heat once sprang upon me, bearing me to the ground. Then I felt a suddensharp blow on my throat, and I lost consciousness."