"You are making your grand tour towards happiness," he exclaimed.
"Dessert, café noir—then the cigarette and contentment."
"I have had the café noir," Julian said, indicating his empty cup, which Wade had by accident omitted to clear away. "I have had the cigarette."
"Well. What then? Are you unhappy?"
"I tell you I don't know. Give me some more absinthe."
The doctor watched his excitement growing as he drank. It seemed an excitement adverse to Valentine.
"One may have too much black coffee," he suddenly said.
"And that exerts a very depressing effect upon the nerves," said the doctor, taking him literally. "Neither you nor I are likely to sleep well to-night, Addison."
"I never sleep well now, doctor," Julian said.
All this time he continued to regard Valentine in the peculiar, observant manner of a stranger who is trying to make up his mind about the unfamiliar man at whom he looks.
"Then you should not drink black coffee."