Page 620 - of-human-bondage-

er. He watched the play with an abstracted mind, trying to
give himself gaiety by drinking whiskey in each interval; he
was unused to alcohol, and it affected him quickly, but his
drunkenness was savage and morose. When the play was
over he had another drink. He could not go to bed, he knew
he would not sleep, and he dreaded the pictures which his
vivid imagination would place before him. He tried not to
think of them. He knew he had drunk too much. Now he
was seized with a desire to do horrible, sordid things; he
wanted to roll himself in gutters; his whole being yearned
for beastliness; he wanted to grovel.
He walked up Piccadilly, dragging his club-foot, som-
brely drunk, with rage and misery clawing at his heart. He
was stopped by a painted harlot, who put her hand on his
arm; he pushed her violently away with brutal words. He
walked on a few steps and then stopped. She would do as
well as another. He was sorry he had spoken so roughly to
her. He went up to her.
‘I say,’ he began.
‘Go to hell,’ she said.
Philip laughed.
‘I merely wanted to ask if you’d do me the honour of sup-
ping with me tonight.’
She looked at him with amazement, and hesitated for a
while. She saw he was drunk.
‘I don’t mind.’
He was amused that she should use a phrase he had
heard so often on Mildred’s lips. He took her to one of the
restaurants he had been in the habit of going to with Mil-

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