Suffering is Hip presents another Classics Digest.
Masticated and digested here is the Alexandre Dumas (fils) classic "La Dame Aux Camélias"

Marguerite:  Armand, you have come back to me! (coughs bloodily)

Armand:  (Approaching Marguerite, he tries to embrace her, but she draws away) Yes, my frail camellia, I have realized the folly of my ways. Forgive me, Marguerite. Come with me to our little cottage in the countryside and we shall live in happiness together.

Marguerite: (Coughs bloodily again, some of the blood staining Armand's lapel) Alas, my love, alas. It is too late! I fear I will not last the night. Got any Robitussin?

Armand:  Don't speak like that, my Marguerite! You were strong enough to give up our love for my sake; you are strong enough to beat your consumption!

Marguerite: Would that it were so. Dearest Armand, my lungs may give out, but my heart will live forever. It will beat for you, my love, long after I have left this wretched existence.

Armand: You cannot leave me, Marguerite, you must not. (He takes her in his arms)

Marguerite: Careful, dear, I'm hemorrhaging. Place one more sweet kiss on my lips and I can die content.

Armand: (He kisses her) Mon dieu! Has Olympe been feeding you garlic?

Marguerite: Alack, alas and woe is me... I feel my heartbeat slow and my spirit starting to slip from me....

Armand: How would you know that, Marguerite? You were a courtesan, not a doctor.

Marguerite: Yes, I know, and I made good money too. But I gave it all up to love you, Armand, and now that I am about to depart, I have no regrets. In addition to consumption, I would have gladly suffered typhoid fever, the plague and yeast infection for just one kiss!

Armand: Oh, my Lady of the Camellias!

Marguerite: Armandy-poo! (Coughing up blood one last time, Marguerite sinks down into her bed, dead)

Armand: NNNOOOOOOOO!!!!

fin

AUTHOR'S BIO:

Maya Cantu, currently living in a Virginia suburb with her family, is an 18-year old actress/writer who will soon relocate to Manhattan and after attending the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, proceed to conquer Broadway as a hybrid of Sarah Bernhardt and Ethel Merman. Like many a volatile artistic type, she enjoys myriad aesthetic and literary pursuits and these are a few of her favorite things: Pre-Raphaelite art, foreign films, Symbolist and Decadent literature, the occult, witty people, mythology and feminism. As well as sketches and plays, she writes lots of bitter poetry and is at work on her first novel. One may email Maya at bebeakitty@erols.com, for at this writing, she has not switched to AOL.