The more
hideous you become the more pleased I shall be. And you needn't be
afraid I have gone mad. I am damnably sane. And still more damnably
sober. Go out and buy me a bottle of Lethe, and be quick about it.
This is nearly finished."
"Do you mean rum?" She was reassured, somewhat, but he had a fashion
of making what passed for her brain feel as if it had been churned.
"Yes, I mean rum, damn you. Clear out."
He opened an old wallet and threw a handful of bills on the floor.
"Go round into Broadway and buy yourself a gown of white satin and a
wreath of lilies for your hair. You would be a picture to make the
angels weep, while I myself wept from pure joy. Get out."
XLIII
Madeleine had forced herself to eat a light dinner, and a few
minutes before eleven she drank a cup of strong coffee; but when she
entered upon the sights and sounds and stenches of Worth Street she
nearly fainted.
The night was hot. The narrow crooked streets of the Five Points
were lit with gas that shone dimly through the grimy panes of the
lamp posts or through the open doors of groggeries and fetid shops.
The gutter was a sewer. Probably not one of those dehumanized
creatures ever bathed. Some of the children were naked and all looked
as if they had been dipped in the gutters and tossed out to dry.
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