The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1919-07-29
To The Uttermost Fartlling By ANN MCCLURE
 
 
By ANN MCCLURE

1 the caged animals at the Zoo must be- She had all the impulses toward | life at it's highest pitch, all youth s l craving for enjoyment but the absence l of the drug seemed to hold her back
 from the fulfilment of her desires | like the iron bars of a cage.
 Would Mrs. Martin never come?
 Poppy's nerves were on edge and 1 the time dragged horribly. At last she 1 heard her step on the stair. She en- ! tered with a rather crestfallen air. i MT. Goldstein had not been in a len 1 tent mood that morning. Apparently 1 he, too, was a person of tempera- l ment. He had only advanced five 1 dollars on the watch, and that only | after considerable argument. Poppy l knew that the watch was a good one | and was worth very much more than | the pawn-broker had been willing | to acknowledge but what was the use l of bothering about 1t. The only thing l on earth that mattered at that mo- i ment was that she must have tweny- | five dollars and she only had five | She had already mortgaged her | weeks salary so there was no hope 1 there of raising the other twenty. i The fact that she had no money to pay current expenses, pay rent, even
 
 l important in comparison with the l fact that the drug for which every ! fibre of her being was crying out 1 was beyond her req oh. The elixir of ! life without which she felt she could not exist!
 To people who have not exper1enc- | ed the craving for an accustomed drug | the addict says that no words can 1 convey any expression of what it f is at once a physical and spiritual 1 craving. One experiences the anguish l and despair of a lost soul. The physf- cal craving is akin to that stage of starvation when the hungry man is tortured by visions and dreams of marvellous dainties
 Poppy felt that the tortures of tn damned were no greater than those i she was suffering. If she could have l just one more dose, then everything would be all right It seen ed to her
 that then sfe would be able to over | come everything, even the craving | that now possessed her, body and soul Again she thought of Armstrong; i Would he help her now?
 He had always pretended to be in terested in her and he was the cause i of it all. She did not actually know | whether he was inherently evil or 1 whether his conduct in introducing her to the terrible temptation was | simply the results of the degrading 1 effects of the drug. But he seemed to rejoice in it's dominion over her. How ever, it was probably useless to appeal to him. The last time she had seen him, two or three days previous, he, too, had been stony broke and he had said things to her on that occasion that she had resented.
 Suddenly she realized how she hat l ed the man. But she also realized a1- most at the same moment that he was necessary to her and deep down in her heart she knew that once she got the drug and she had taken just one whiff of it she would forget her | resentment and be ready to do almost 1 anything for him.
 Just then her eyes fell on a great | bunch of lilies of the valley. Their | fragrance filled the room but till now she had not been conscious of them. Their calm. pure beauty was too great a contrast to her fevered trnag- i nation. They made her think of Robert Schyler and she did not want to think of him.
 Robert Schyler had entered Pop pys little world some months pre- Yious.. He was not like the other men of her acquaintance. He was of an old upstate family who spent much Of their time in the metropolis where they moved in a rather quiet, though | wealthy circle. They had met at a little party given by a rising young artist. For Robert the affair had had 1 a tinge of bohemianism, for Poppy, a strong flavor of responsibility. Young Schuyler found the girl strangely attractive, and a sort of i friendship grew up between them. At times she seemed to him like a dancing flame Of fire, a gorgeous poppy in deed and at other times she was so
 sweet and gentle. soothing that he thought she was the very poppy es- sence.
 TO poppy he was like a clear cold breeze and ordinarily she enjoyed his | society exceedingly but in the throes or her craving she sometimes felt as 1 if she hated him.
 Today the sight of his flowers mad 1 dened her, She could endure them
 no longer, Opening her window she
 hurled the whole thing with a crash | into the yard below. A frightened ] screech from the basement regions floated upwards, and completed the curious sense of satisfaction that her | act of violence had given her. She l laughed as she turned her back from | the window but her laughter came to I a sudden stop
 long glass hung on the wall op- | posite her-the glass before which 1 she had studied and practised her | steps and gestures Was that figure | she saw there really her own ?Surely | it was not she, Poppy Belmont; un- | kept, tawdry, with sallow face and
 sunken eyes. For the moment she was
 terrified. Then she flung herself :. n l the bed, sobs shaking her slender | body. She wished she had tnded it
 all the night before as she had felt
 an impulse to do, She would rather ] die than live through this torture The druggist danced and chort1ed