ciate the full grimness of the sarcasm hear it from their lips
amid their own surroundings. I winked with vigour to show that I
appreciated Life and was a real chippy, and that upon me, too, there
were no flies. There is an intoxication in company that carries a man to
excess of mirth; but when a party of four deliberately sit down to
drink and swear, the bottom tumbles out of the amusement somehow, and
loathing and boredom follow. A night's reflection has convinced me that
there is no hell for these women in another world. They have their own
in this Life, and I have been through it a little way. Still carrying
the brevet rank of doctor, it was my duty to watch through the night to
the dawn a patient--gay, _toujours_ gay, remember--quivering on the
verge of a complaint called the "jumps." Corinthian Kate will get hers
later on. Her companion, emerging from a heavy drink, was more than
enough for me. She was an unmitigated horror, until I lost detestation
in genuine pity. The fear of death was upon her for a reason that you
shall hear.

"I say, you say you come from India. Do you know anything about
cholera?"

"A little," I answered. The voice of the questioner was cracked and
quavering. A long pause.

"I say, Doctor, what are the symptoms of cholera? A woman died just over
the street there last week."

"This is pleasant," I thought. "But I must remember that it is Life."

"She died last week--cholera. My God, I tell you she was dead in six
hours! I guess I'll get cholera, too. I can't, though. Can I? I thought
I had it two days ago. It hurt me terribly. I can't get it, can I? It
never attacks people twice, does it? Oh, say it doesn't and be damned to
you. Doctor, what are the symptoms of cholera?"

I waited till she had detailed her own attack, assured her that these
and no others were the symptoms, and--may this be set to my credit--that
cholera never attacked twice. This soothed her for ten minutes. Then
she sprang up with an oath and shrieked:--

"I won't be buried in Hong-Kong. That frightens me. When I die--of
cholera--take me to 'Frisco and bury me there. In 'Frisco--Lone Mountain
'Frisco--you hear, Doctor?"

I heard and promised. Outside the birds were beginning to twitter and
the dawn was pencilling the shutters.

"I say, Doctor, did you ever know Cora Pearl?"

"'Knew _of_ her." I wondered whether she was going to walk round the
room to all eternity with her eyes glaring at the ceiling and her hands