“The guest of the evening,” she said.  “Do not be afraid.  Inhale—­oh, so gentle—­and blow the smoke from the nostrils.  You know how to smoke?”

“The same as a cigarette?” asked Rita excitedly, as Mrs. Sin bent over her.

“The same, but very, very gentle.”

Rita took the pipe and raised the mouthpiece to the lips.

CHAPTER XIV

IN THE SHADE OF THE LONELY PALM

Persian opium of good quality contains from ten to fifteen percent morphine, and chandu made from opium of Yezd would contain perhaps twenty-five per cent of this potent drug; but because in the act of smoking distillation occurs, nothing like this quantity of morphine reaches the smoker.  To the distilling process, also, may be due the different symptoms resulting from smoking chandu and injecting morphia —­or drinking tincture of opium, as De Quincey did.

Rita found the flavor of the preparation to be not entirely unpleasant.  Having overcome an initial aversion, caused by its marked medicinal tang, she grew reconciled to it and finished her first smoke without experiencing any other effect than a sensation of placid contentment.  Deftly, Mrs. Sin renewed the pipe.  Silence had fallen upon the party.

The second “pill” was no more than half consumed when a growing feeling of nausea seized upon the novice, becoming so marked that she dropped the ivory pipe weakly and uttered a faint moan.

Instantly, silently, Mrs. Sin was beside her.

“Lean forward—­so,” she whispered, softly, as if fearful of intruding her voice upon these sacred rites.  “In a moment you will be better.  Then, if you feel faint, lie back.  It is the sleep.  Do not fight against it.”

The influence of the stronger will prevailed.  Self-control and judgment are qualities among the first to succumb to opium.  Rita ceased to think longingly of the clean, fresh air, of escape from these sickly fumes which seemed now to fill the room with a moving vacuum.  She bent forward, her chin resting upon her breast, and gradually the deathly sickness passed.  Mentally, she underwent a change, too.  From an active state of resistance the ego traversed a descending curve ending in absolute passivity.  The floor had seemingly begun to revolve and was moving insidiously, so that the pattern of the carpet formed a series of concentric rings.  She found this imaginary phenomenon to be soothing rather than otherwise, and resigned herself almost eagerly to the delusion.

Mrs. Sin allowed her to fall back upon the cushions—­so gently and so slowly that the operation appeared to occupy several minutes and to resemble that of sinking into innumerable layers of swansdown.  The sinuous figure bending over her grew taller with the passage of each minute, until the dark eyes of Mrs. Sin were looking down at Rita from a dizzy elevation.  As often occurs in the case of a neurotic subject, delusion as to time and space had followed the depression of the sensory cells.