Sylvia & Michael: The later adventures of Sylvia ScarlettMacKenzie, Compton
General
Sylvia & Michael: The later adventures of Sylvia Scarlett
MacKenzie, Compton
Fiction
"Call it hunger or the divine vision, the result is the same," she
murmured. "I was lifted out of myself, and I take it that is the way
martyrs died for their faith. From an outsider's point of view I may be
only worthy of a foot-note in a manual of psychology; but I 'on honeydew
have fed and drunk the milk of Paradise.' Another queer thought: the
fasting saint and the drunken sinner both achieve ecstasy by subduing
the body, the one with mortification, the other with indulgence. Those
whom the gods love die young--they drink too deep and too often of
honeydew and become intoxicated even unto death. Wine must serve the man
who would live long. Perhaps I am one of those less rare spirits that
depend too much on purely material beauty; yet even in defense of so
little I can act. Some nightingales love roses: the rest of them love
other nightingales. Which do I love? Ah, whether Queenie be rose or
nightingale, what does it matter? Nobody that would not stoop to save a
wood-louse in his path can claim to love. And I will stoop as low as
hell to save this rosebud that has already been gathered and wired and
worn in a buttonhole and dropped by the roadside, but surely not yet
trodden underfoot."
Queenie woke with a bad headache, and Sylvia went down-stairs to see if
she could persuade the waiter to let her have some coffee. He was going
to refuse, but when she asked him if he would tell M. Florilor that a
visit would be welcomed that afternoon, his manner changed, and
presently he came back from an interview with the proprietor to say that
he would serve coffee at once. At the same time he brought the bill of
fare for lunch, and seemed anxious that they should choose some special
delicacy to fortify themselves against the ill effects of the day
before. There was no talk of paying for the meal, and the best wine was
indicated with that assumption of subservient greed which is common to
all good waiters.
After lunch Sylvia told Queenie that she was going out to send off the
delayed telegram to Bucharest, and left her lying down with her
pictures. Then she consulted the waiter about a room. The waiter agreed
that it would be inconvenient to receive M. Florilor in their own, and
informed her that the best room in the hotel was ready, adding that he
had ordered plenty of cakes and put flowers in the vases.
"I'll go there now," Sylvia announced. "When he comes, bring him
straight up."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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