'Had enough?' I said at last. She was half drowned and pretty cold.
'I want you!' she spluttered.
'No,' I said. 'I'm going to keep you here until you cool down.'
Finally she gave in. I let her go. Poor girl, she was shivering terribly and she looked a sight. I got a towel and gave her a good rub down. Then a glass of brandy.
'It was that red pill,' she said.
'I know it was.'
'I want some of them to take home.'
'Those are too strong for ladies,' I said. 'I will make you some that are just right.'
'Now?'
'No. Come back tomorrow and they'll be ready.'
Because her dress was ruined, I wrapped her in my overcoat and drove her home in the De Dion. Actually, she had done me a good turn. She had demonstrated that my pill worked just as well on the female as it did on the male. Probably better. I immediately set about making some Ladies' Pills. I made them half the strength of the Men's Pills, and I turned out one hundred of them, anticipating a ready market. But the market was even more ready than I had anticipated. When the Russian woman came back the next afternoon, she demanded five hundred of them on the spot!
'But they cost two hundred and fifty francs each.'
'I don't care about that. All my girl friends want them. I told them what happened to me yesterday and now they all want them.'
'I can give you a hundred, that's all. The rest later. Do you have money?'
'Of course I have money.'
'May I make a suggestion, madame?'
'What is it?'
'If a lady takes one of these pills on her own, I fear she may appear unduly aggressive. Men don't like that. I didn't like it yesterday.'
'What is your suggestion?'
'I suggest that any lady who intends taking one of these pills should persuade her partner also to take one. And at exactly the same time. Then they'll be all square.'
'That makes good sense,' she said.
It not only made good sense, it would also double the sales.
'The partner,' I said, 'could take a larger pill. It's called the Men's Pill. That's simply because men are bigger than women and need a bigger dose.'
'Always assuming,' she said, smiling a little, 'that the partner is a male.'
'Whatever you like,' I said.
She shrugged her shoulders and said, 'Very well, then, give me also one hundred of these Men's Pills.'
By gum, I thought, there's going to be some fun and frolics around the boudoirs of Paris tonight. Things were hot enough with just the man getting himself all pilled-up but I shuddered to think what was going to happen when both parties took the medicine.
It was a howling success. Sales doubled. They trebled. By the time my twelve months in Paris were up, I had around two million francs in the bank! That was one hundred thousand pounds! I was now nearly eighteen. I was rich. But I was not rich enough. My year in France had shown me very clearly the path I wanted to follow in my life. I was a sybarite. I wished to lead a life of luxury and leisure. I would never get bored. That was not my style. But I would never be completely satisfied unless the luxury was intensely luxurious and the leisure was unlimited. One hundred thousand pounds was not enough for that. I needed more. I needed a million pounds at least. I felt sure I would find a way to earn it. Meanwhile, I had not made a bad start.
I had enough sense to realize that first of all I must continue my education. Education is everything. I have a horror of uneducated people. And so in the summer of 1913,1 transferred my money to a London bank and returned to the land of my fathers. In September, I went up to Cambridge to begin my undergraduate studies. I was a scholar remember, a scholar of Trinity College, and as such I had a number of privileges and was well-treated by those in authority.
It was here at Cambridge that the second and final phase of my fortune-making began. Bear with me a little longer and you shall hear all about it in the pages to come.