Sayfa 415 / 490

"Darlington is not going to do anything. My brother paid the bill

at last. George doesn't speak to me either.... I don't care," he

added with a sigh. "As long as one has this stuff, one doesn't

want friends. I think I have had too many friends."

Dorian winced and looked round at the grotesque things that lay

in such fantastic postures on the ragged mattresses. The twisted

limbs, the gaping mouths, the staring lustreless eyes, fascinated

him. He knew in what strange heavens they were suffering, and

what dull hells were teaching them the secret of some new joy.

They were better off than he was. He was prisoned in thought.

Memory, like a horrible malady, was eating his soul away. From

time to time he seemed to see the eyes of Basil Hallward looking

at him. Yet he felt he could not stay. The presence of Adrian

Singleton troubled him. He wanted to be where no one would know

who he was. He wanted to escape from himself.

"I am going on to the other place," he said after a pause.

"On the wharf?"