THE SQUIRE'S STORY (CONTINUED)
"I left the barracks and made my way into the lowest and commonest quarter of the city. My own idea was to drown my thoughts, to forget myself, Edith, and the world, even if only for an hour or so. The sight of the familiar sign of the opium den over a low door stopped me in my mad ramble. Here was the chance of banishing my thoughts and misery. I entered. A hideous old Chinaman barred my way, but satisfying himself that I was not an objectionable person, he turned and led me down into the dark den itself. An unoccupied ottoman in a corner took my fancy. I flung myself down. Simultaneously a soft voice asked me in English what I required. At first I fancied I was a prey to my imagination. The voice was 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 the words that had roused me from my drowsiness. She was in all respects the loveliest native girl I ever saw—so slim, so bright-eyed, and so charmingly clad, that for the moment I forgot my misery in contemplation of her exceptional beauty.
"'You speak English?' I remarked.
"'Yes, indeed,' she murmured, seating herself gracefully on the arm of the couch; 'it is so much prettier than my own language.'
"'And what are you doing in this—er—hell?' I could not refrain from asking. 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.' And she waved her arm, bare to the elbow, in the direction of the motionless forms recumbent on the other couches in the cellar.
"'What is your name?' I whispered, as I perceived that she was not averse to conversation.
"'Lilla,' she replied, blushing under her dark skin. I noticed that she had 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 here occasionally which would cause some talk were they to become known.' She shrugged her little shoulders suggestively. She was certainly a bewitching girl.
"'You are an officer?' she asked.
"'Yes,' I replied, foolishly betraying the fact, when, dressed as I was in civilian attire, I might have passed as a merchant or some other English resident of the city.
"For the moment I confess I was bewitched—powerless in the hands of the dark-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 the couch, and our conversation disturbed a silence only broken occasionally by the heavy breathing or moans of one or other of the motionless figures 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 was known in her peculiar family circle.
"Yes, she had always lived in the den, she told me, and had waited upon the customers since a mere child. She was now only seventeen, and confessed she was unmarried. She further told me that she intended doing what the English call marrying money, even questioning me, to my embarrassment, 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 to bewitch 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 nose to spite my face'—impotently avenging Edith's treatment of me by falling in love—no other words express my behaviour—with the first female I met after learning of what I believed to be her fickle inconstancy.
"I am more than inclined to think that the native girl was imbued with those powers that so many of even the humblest Indian folks possess—a power that, unfortunately, is getting a firm rooting in this country—that of mesmeric influence over a weaker mind!
"It will be sufficient for me to say that I found myself quite powerless in the girl's hands. I told her the story of my life and love when she requested me to do so. I seemed unable to hide anything from her. I went so far as to mention that a severe punishment would result were it discovered that I had visited the den, the cholera then ravishing the country, and the troops, including the officers, being under special orders not to visit the particularly afflicted quarters of the town.
"And this remark of mine must have been the cause of all my future trouble 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, it was 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 that drew me, on the following afternoon, to the low opium den.
"This time I was horrified on entering the dim cellar to see Lilla curled up on a sofa with the stem of an opium pipe between her pearly teeth. Otherwise the room was empty. Not until afterwards did I discover the reason, which was that one of the visitors of the previous day had been seized with the terrible disease, and that either he had communicated the scourge to the other smokers who haunted the den, or the habitués had been too frightened by what they saw to return!
"On closer investigation I discovered that a glass of neat spirit stood on the table at the girl's right hand! That the lovely young girl was an opium 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 had bewitched and fascinated me on the previous day was now revealed in her true light. Now she seemed something despicable, hateful, loathsome. The beauty that I admired seemed to have vanished. The creature now appeared to be hideous. Whether the revulsion of feeling caused a permanent blindness of my eyes to her beauty I cannot say. Knowing what I do of India and its mysteries—mysteries that scientists have failed to solve—I am more than inclined to think that the girl was never so beautiful as she first appeared to me. My very eyes had been deceived before 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 the powers she possessed, led me to imagine the charms I had only a day before 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 it seemed to me, towards where I stood.
"'You shall kiss me,' she hissed, and again I was impressed by her resemblance to a serpent.
"Even when I attempted to cast her away as she crept nearer and nearer to me I felt that I was powerless. My loathing for this creature was none the less, yet I could not prevent her from pressing those cruel thin 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 marry me!'
"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 are ensnared. You are mine. You shall not leave this house until you are even more mine—until you are my husband.'
"Then as she spoke I suddenly became aware of the fact that a face was peering through the half-closed door of the den—a shrivelled, yellow face, with oval slits of eyes, which were directed towards me.
"Then, evidently perceiving I was aware of this fact, the door was pushed open, and a hideous Chinese woman shuffled in, at once engaging Lilla 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 a moment's conversation with Lilla.
"'Sahib likee mazinloree?' she said with an intonation that implied a question.
"I shook my head, not understanding the creature's remark.
"'She says, "Does the gentleman like his mother-in-law?"' explained Lilla, with a leering laugh.
"'I have had enough of this nonsense,' I shouted, bubbling over with rage; '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, and found myself in the dark passage.
"'Ha—ha—ha!' screamed Lilla; 'how will you like it when we tell the General 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 only too plain. Unless I married Lilla she would report my visit to the forbidden 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 my self-control to prevent myself from striking her.
"There was the soft pat-pat of footsteps in the passage; then I felt a tap on my shoulder.
"Turning, I confronted a gigantic Hindoo in gorgeous costume, who had come upon us from whence I did not know.
"'This is the man?' he asked Lilla in Hindustani, a language with which I 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, he at once sprang upon me, bearing me to the ground. Then I felt a sudden sharp blow on my throat, and I lost consciousness."