could see the glimmer
of fast-forming tears. '_Embrasse moi_', she commanded in a trembling
breath. 'Kiss me and go quickly, but _O mon cher_, do not forget poor
little foolish Julie d'Ayen who has put her trust in you. Come to me
again tomorrow night!'

"I was reeling as from vertigo as I walked back to the Greenwald, and
the bartender looked at me suspiciously when I ordered a sazarac.
They've a strict rule against serving drunken men at that hotel. The
liquor stung my lips like liquid flame, and I put the cocktail down
half finished. When I set the fan to going and switched the light on
in my room I looked into the mirror and saw two little beads of fresh,
bright blood upon my lips. 'Good Lord!' I murmured stupidly as I
brushed the blood away; 'she bit me!'

"It all seemed so incredible that if I had not seen the blood upon my
mouth I'd have thought I suffered from some lunatic hallucination, or
one too many frappes at the Absinthe House. Julie was as quaint and
out of time as a Directoire print, even in a city where time stands
still as it does in old New Orleans. Her costume, her half-shy
boldness, her--this was simply madness, nothing less!--her
conversation with that snake!

"What was it she had said? My French was none too good, and in the
circumstances it was hardly possible to pay attention to her words,
but if I'd understood her, she'd declared, 'He's mine; he has
dedicated himself to me!' And she'd addressed that crawling horror as
'_grand'tante_--great-aunt!'

"'Feller, you're as crazy as a cockroach!' I admonished my reflection
in the mirror. 'But I know what'll cure you. You're taking the first
train north tomorrow morning, and if I ever catch you in the _Vieux
Carre_ again, I'll----'

"A sibilating hiss, no louder than the noise made by steam escaping
from a kettle-spout, sounded close beside my foot. There on the rug,
coiled in readiness to strike, was a three-foot cottonmouth, head
swaying viciously from side to side, wicked eyes shining in the bright
light from the chandelier. I saw the muscles in the creature's
fore-part swell, and in a sort of horror-trance I watched its head
dart forward, but, miraculously, it stopped its stroke half-way, and
drew its head back, turning to glance menacingly at me first from one
eye, then the other. Somehow, it seemed to me, the thing was playing
with me as a cat might play a mouse, threatening, intimidating,
letting me know it was master of the situation and