The rest of that banquet is not a pleasant memory, and I will not describe it in detail. After that first glance my companion responded with a kind of desperate gayety to my clumsy attempts to flirt with her. But a good deal of the time we watched the animated scene before us, eating and drinking automatically.
The center of the floor was clear, and in this space between the tables daring but beautiful dance followed dance in a whirl of shimmering and sensuous color and movement. With one exception I knew no one of the men there and none of the girls. The exception, I saw with a start, was a very well known Senator. But I did not know him personally and my presence meant nothing to him.
In spite of myself, the barbarous languor and sensuousness of the scene began to set strange visions running through my brain before long, and I sat up and turned to look at my companion. But there was nothing but despair in her eyes. I knew that, on such a quest, nothing but a drug of some kind could so turn my thoughts. But evidently I alone had been drugged, in spite of the fact that I had tasted the food carefully and drunk very sparingly of the wine. After that I neither ate nor drank anything at all, in spite of the persistent urging of both my companion and the attendant who served us.
As time passed, one or two of the men around me became over-attentive to their companions. But evidently anything of that kind was barred here at least, for they were instantly and firmly, though courteously dissuaded by the attendants waiting on them.
Presently one or two men rose from their places and staggered, assisted by their companions, toward the big doors. Evidently they had had more to drink than was good for them. They were all men of an educated and cultivated type, and I could hardly believe that human nature could sink so low among my own kind. But hopes and plans were racing through my brain, too. And the sight of these men gave me an idea.
As gradually as I could, I began to feign drunkenness, laughing a little foolishly back into the disdainful and desperate eyes of my companion. And presently I staggered to my feet.
“C’mon,” I said; “let’s get out of this.”
She rose at once and took my arm, and, leaning on her a little I made a devious course through the big doors, opened for us by an attendant, back into the hall again.
“Where is your room?” asked the girl.
Before I could answer, the Chinese boy appeared at my elbow and bowed. I stared at him and laughed foolishly. “Don’ bob about so, my boy. He shouldn’t, should he?” I appealed to my companion.