"Do you promise to obey my orders? If so, I will cure you," the commissioner began, meantime laying his hand on her forehead.
At the word obey he felt how the patient twitched as though she would not obey at all, but at the same moment his bracelet slipped below the cuff and the resistance of the imaginary sick ceased.
"Do with me as you please," answered she submissively; meanwhile her eyes were fastened on the golden serpent which fascinated her and aroused her fears of something unknown.
"I am no physician by profession, as you know, but I have studied the art, and know all that is necessary for this occasion. Here I have a drug which is very diagreeable to take, but is infallible in its action. It is no secret and I shall tell you what I am giving you. This is a resinous gum which is prepared from the root of a perennial herb which grows in stony Arabia."
At the word Arabia the girl listened, for it probably aroused some thoughts of incense, which could not hide Lady Macbeth's foul crimes.
Therefore she took the spoon and smelt of its contents; but at the same moment she threw her head backwards and cried: "I cannot take it!"
He placed his arm round her neck, firmly and gently, and reached the spoon to her once more and coaxingly said:
"Show now that you are a good child!" Thereupon he poured the drug into her mouth, before she could make resistance.
She fell backwards upon the sofa pillows and her body writhed under the pains and nauseating effects which the resin with its smell of white onion had produced, and her face expressed a horror as though all things bad and disgusting in this world had piled upon her. With a supplicating voice she beseeched him for a glass of water to free her from her agony.
This he would not give her; she must lie down and, whether she would or not, submit to the disagreeable feelings the remedy caused.