other desire. In the
individual, this desire is ultimately a desire for destruction in the
self"--HIC!--' he paused and looked up.

'I hope he's going ahead with the destruction of himself,' said the
quick voice of the Russian. Halliday giggled, and lolled his head back,
vaguely.

'There's not much to destroy in him,' said the Pussum. 'He's so thin
already, there's only a fag-end to start on.'

'Oh, isn't it beautiful! I love reading it! I believe it has cured my
hiccup!' squealed Halliday. 'Do let me go on. "It is a desire for the
reduction process in oneself, a reducing back to the origin, a return
along the Flux of Corruption, to the original rudimentary conditions of
being--!" Oh, but I DO think it is wonderful. It almost supersedes the
Bible-'

'Yes--Flux of Corruption,' said the Russian, 'I remember that phrase.'

'Oh, he was always talking about Corruption,' said the Pussum. 'He must
be corrupt himself, to have it so much on his mind.'

'Exactly!' said the Russian.

'Do let me go on! Oh, this is a perfectly wonderful piece! But do
listen to this. "And in the great retrogression, the reducing back of
the created body of life, we get knowledge, and beyond knowledge, the
phosphorescent ecstasy of acute sensation." Oh, I do think these
phrases are too absurdly wonderful. Oh but don't you think they
ARE--they're nearly as good as Jesus. "And if, Julius, you want this
ecstasy of reduction with the Pussum, you must go on till it is
fulfilled. But surely there is in you also, somewhere, the living
desire for positive creation, relationships in ultimate faith, when all
this process of active corruption, with all its flowers of mud, is
transcended, and more or less finished--" I do wonder what the flowers
of mud are. Pussum, you are a flower of mud.'

'Thank you--and what are you?'

'Oh, I'm another, surely, according to this letter! We're all flowers
of mud--FLEURS--HIC! DU MAL! It's perfectly wonderful, Birkin harrowing
Hell--harrowing the Pompadour--HIC!'

'Go on--go on,' said Maxim. 'What comes next? It's really very
interesting.'

'I think it's awful cheek to write like that,' said the Pussum.

'Yes--yes, so do I,' said the Russian. 'He is a megalomaniac, of
course, it is a form of religious mania. He thinks he is the Saviour of
man--go on reading.'

'Surely,' Halliday intoned, '"surely goodness and mercy hath followed
me all the days of my life--"' he broke off and giggled. Then he began
again, into