"Oh, damnation! in my saddle-bags on the washstand. What are you trying to talk white folks' English for?" He hardly spoke three words without a moan or an oath. "Do you find a measuring-glass?"
She found it.
"See a small bottle—dark liquid—about twice the size—of the glass?"
"Yass, suh, but it's full, suh."
"Hell! what of that? Fill the glass and give it to me!"
She filled it but paused. "It—it looks like la'danum."
"Oh, damn you, so did your great-grandmother. It's not laudanum. Did you ever smell vinegar in laudanum, or nutmeg? Give it here! God A'mighty, if I could reach you with my fist—Give me that glass!"
"Misteh Lucian, if this is la'danum——"
"You hell-fired idiot, it isn't! And if it was, such an overdose would only vomit me. Don't you know that?"
"Yass, suh, I know it would." But still she held back.