LITMIR.BIZ

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      "I don't think so."

      "Well, I won't drink it, and I won't let you drink it! So now what?"

      "I think you'll do both."

      "I don't!" she snapped. "And I don't like this, Nick—the place, or the liquor, or your attitude, or anything. We're going to leave!"

      Instead of answering, he pulled the cork from the bottle, pouring a quantity of the amber fluid into each of the tumblers. To one he added an equal quantity of ginger ale, and set it deliberately squarely in front of Pat. She frowned at it distastefully, and shook her head.

      "No," she said. "Not I. I'm leaving."

      She made no move, however; her eyes met those of her companion, gazing at her with a cold intentness in their curious amber depths. And again—was that a flash of red? Impulsively she reached out her hand, touched his.

      "Oh, Nick!" she said in soft, almost pleading tones. "Please, Honey—I don't understand you. Don't you know I love you, Nick? You can hear me say it: I love you. Don't you believe that?"

      He continued his cold, intense stare; the grim set of his mouth was as unrelaxing as marble. Pat felt a shiver of apprehension run through her, and an almost hypnotic desire to yield herself to the demands of the inexplicable eyes. She tore her glance away, looking down at the red checks of the table cloth.

      "Nick, dear," she said. "I can't understand this. Will you tell me what you—will you tell me why we're here?"

      "It is out of your grasp."

      "But—I know it has something to do with Wednesday night, something to do with that reluctance of yours, the thing you said you didn't understand. Hasn't it?"

      "Do you think so?"

      "Yes," she said. "I do! And Nick, Honey—didn't I tell you I could forgive you anything? I don't care what's happened in the past; all I care for is now, now and the future. Don't you understand me? I've told you I loved you, Honey! Don't you love me?"

      "Yes," said the other, staring at her with no change in the fixity of his gaze.

      "Then how can you—act like this to me?"

      "This is my conception of love."

      "I don't understand!" the girl said helplessly. "I'm completely puzzled—it's all topsy-turvy."

      "Yes," he said in impassive agreement.

      "But what is this, Nick? Please, please—what is this? Are you mad?" She had almost added, "Like your father."

      "No," he said, still in those cold tones. "This is an experiment."

      "An experiment!"

      "Yes. An experiment in evil."

      "I don't understand," she repeated.

      "I said you wouldn't."

      "Do you mean," she asked, struck by a sudden thought, "that discussion of ours about pure horror? What you said that night last week?"

      "That!" His voice was icy and contemptuous. "That was the drivel of a weakling. No; I mean evil, not horror—the living evil that can be so beautiful that one walks deliberately, with open eyes, into Hell only to prevent its loss. That is the experiment."

      "Oh," said Pat, her own voice suddenly cool. "Is that what you wish to do—experiment on me?"

      "Yes."

      "And what am I supposed to do?"

      "First you are to drink with me."

      "I see," she said slowly. "I see—dimly. I am a subject, a reagent, a guinea pig, to provide you material for your writing. You propose to use me in this experiment of yours—this experiment in evil. All right!" She picked up the tumbler; impulsively she drained it. The liquor, diluted as it was, was raw and strong enough to bring tears smarting to her eyes. Or was it the liquor?

      "All right!" she cried. "I'll drink it all—the whole bottle!" She seized the flask, filling her tumbler to the brim, while her companion watched her with impassive gaze. "You'll have your experiment! And then, Nicholas Devine, we're through! Do you hear me? Through!"

      She caught up the tumbler, raised it to her lips, and drained the searing liquid until she could see her companion's cold eyes regarding her through the glass of its bottom.

      9.

       Descent into Avernus

       Table of Contents

      Pat slammed the empty tumbler down on the checked table cloth and buried her face in her hands, choking and gasping from the effects of the fiery liquor. Her throat burned, her mouth was parched by the acrid taste, and a conflagration seemed to be raging somewhere within her. Then she steadied, raised her eyes, and stared straight into the strange eyes of Nicholas Devine.

      "Well?" she said fiercely. "Is that enough?"

      He was watching her coldly as an image or a painting; the intensity of his gaze was more cat-like than human. She moved her head aside; his eyes, without apparent shift, were still on hers, like the eyes of a pictured face. A resurgence of anger shook her at his immobility; his aloofness seemed to imply that nothing she could do would disturb him.

      "Wasn't it enough?" she screamed. "Wasn't it? Then look!"

      She seized the bottle, poured another stream of the oily liquid into her glass, and raised it to her lips. Again the burning fluid excoriated her tongue and throat, and then suddenly, the tumbler was struck from her hand, spilling the rest of its contents on the table.

      "That is enough," said the icy voice of her companion.

      "Oh, it is? We'll see!" She snatched at the bottle, still more than half full. The thin hand of Nicholas Devine wrenched it violently away.

      "Give me that!" she cried. "You wanted what you're getting!" The warmth within her had reached the surface now; she felt flushed, excited, reckless, and desperately angry.

      The other set the bottle deliberately on the floor; he rose, circled the table, and stood glaring down at her with that same inexplicable expression. Suddenly he raised his hand; twisting her black hair in his fist, he dealt her a stinging blow across the lips half-opened to scream, then flung her away so violently that she nearly sprawled from her chair.

      The scream died in her throat; dazed by the blow, she dropped her head to the table, while sobs of pain and fear shook her. Coherent thought had departed, and she knew only that her lips stung, that her clear, active little mind was caught in a mesh of befuddlement. She couldn't think; she could only sob in the haze of dizziness that encompassed her. After a long interval, she raised her head, opened her eyes upon a swaying, unsteady world, and faced her companion, who had silently resumed his seat.

      "Nicholas Devine," she said slowly, speaking as if each word were an effort, "I hate you!"

      "Ah!" he said and was again silent.

      She forced her eyes to focus on his face, while his features danced vaguely as if smoke flowed between the two of them. It was as if there were smoke in her mind as well; she made a great effort to rise above the clouds that bemused her thoughts.

      "Take me home," she said. "Nicholas, I want to go home."

      "Why should I?" he asked impassively. "The experiment is hardly begun."

      "Experiment?" she echoed dully. "Oh, yes—experiment. I'm an experiment."

      "An experiment in evil," he said.

      "Yes—in evil. And I hate you! That's evil enough, isn't it?"

      He reached down, lifted the bottle to the table, and methodically poured himself a drink of the liquor. He raised it, watching the oily swirls in the light, then tipped the fluid to his lips while the girl gazed at him with a sullen set to her own lips. A tiny crimson

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