My Lady Nicotine: A Study in SmokeBarrie, J. M. (James Matthew)
General
My Lady Nicotine: A Study in Smoke
Barrie, J. M. (James Matthew)
Smoking -- Anecdotes; Tobacco -- Anecdotes; Wit and humor, Pictorial
"Where is it? This is the simplest question of the four. It is in the
heart. It fills the heart to overflowing, so that if there were one drop
more the heart would run over. Love is thus plainly a liquid: which
accounts to some extent for its well-recognized habit of surging. Among
its effects this may be noted: that it makes you miserable if you be
not by the loved one's side. To hold her hand is ecstasy, to press it,
rapture. The fond lover--as it might be myself--sees his beloved depart
on a railway journey with apprehension. He never ceases to remember that
engines burst and trains run off the line. In an agony he awaits the
telegram that tells him she has reached Shepherd's Bush in safety.
When he sees her talking, as if she liked it, to another man, he is
torn, he is rent asunder, he is dismembered by jealousy. He walks beneath
her window till the policeman sees him home; and when he wakes in the
morning, it is to murmur her name to himself until he falls asleep again
and is late for the office. Well, do I experience such sensations, or do
I not? Is this love, after all? Where are the spills?
"I have been taking for granted that I know who it is. But is this
wise? Nothing puzzles me so much as the way some men seem to know, by
intuition, as it were, which is the woman for whom they have a passion.
They take a girl from among their acquaintance, and never seem to
understand that they may be taking the wrong one. However, with certain
reservations, I do not think I go too far in saying that I know who she
is. There is one other, indeed, that I have sometimes thought--but it
fortunately happens that they are related, so that in any case I cannot
go far wrong. After I have seen them again, or at least before I
propose, I shall decide definitely on this point.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account