The third was to come in yet a more dramatic fashion.
XIX
Mr. Wellington Brown woke one morning feeling extraordinarily refreshed. Usually he woke with a clouded brain and a parched mouth, with no other desire than to satisfy that craving for opium which all his life had kept him poor and eventually had ruined him physically and morally. But on this occasion he opened his eyes, made a quick stock of his surroundings, and uttered a “faugh!” of disgust. He knew himself so well, and was so well acquainted with his idiosyncrasies and the character of these fits which came upon him, that he saw that the end of a bout had come. Some day he would not wake up feeling refreshed, or wake up at all.
He sat up in bed, fingering his beard, and sucked in the breeze that came through the open window. Rising to his feet, he found his knees a little unstable, and laughed foolishly. It was Yo Len Fo himself who came in bearing a tray with a glass of water, a bottle half-full of whiskey and the inevitable pipe.
Without a word, Wellington poured himself out a stiff dose of the spirit and gulped it down.
“You may take that pipe to the devil,” he said. His voice was quavery but determined.
“‘A pipe in the morning makes the sun shine,’” quoted Yo Len Fo.
“‘A pipe in the morning does not go out with the stars,’” replied Wellington Brown, giving proverb for proverb.
“If the Illustrious will stay I will have breakfast sent to him,” said the Chinaman urgently.
“I have stayed too long,” said Wellington Brown. “What is the day of the month by the foreign reckoning?”