Page:The Man Who Died Twice (1924).djvu/53

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

Though I should have enjoyed, when I was young,
The taste of them. But they were not the wine
To fill my cup, and now it doesn’t matter.”


There was for some time an obscurity
For me in such a reasoning, but I learned,
And I have striven loyally to believe
That he did well—sure that he did not well
In going down those dark stairs again that night
For the beginning of a last debauch
That was to be a prelude, as he put it,
Wincing in reminiscence, for a fugue
Of ravening miseries and recriminations
Assembling in remorseful exposition
That was to be remorseless and infernal
Before they were devouring one another

In a malicious fantasy more infernal,

[ 39 ]