Alan Austen is a young man who's deeply in love with a woman named Diana; he's convinced that she's the one for him; however, the more he persists, the more Diana rejects his advances. Thus, he decides to visit an old man that sells various potions and elixirs, hoping to find something that will make Diana love him unconditionally.
The cunning potion seller tells him that there's a solution of great quality and affordable price that will instantly make Diana yearn for him as much as he yearns for her: a love potion so potent and devastatingly effective, that she won't think of anything or anyone else.
"For indifference," said the old man, they substitute devotion. For scorn, adoration. Give one tiny measure of this to the young lady—its flavour is imperceptible in orange juice, soup, or cocktails—and however gay and giddy she is, she will change altogether. She will...
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want nothing but solitude and you."
In this sense, the old man implies that the love potion is perhaps even too effective for its own "good"—its effects would be permanent and irreversible.
Their effects are permanent, and extend far beyond the mere casual impulse. But they include it. Oh, yes they include it. Bountifully, insistently. Everlastingly.
The potion is so strong that it will consume Diana's entire being and transform her into someone who will not only love but also devote her entire existence to Alan.
"She will want to know all you do," said the old man. "All that has happened to you during the day. Every word of it. She will want to know what you are thinking about, why you smile suddenly, why your are looking sad."
Because of its effectiveness, this incredible $1 love potion might require a "chaser," or another drink that will get rid of the effects of the love potion. The old man sells this deadly and undetectable chaser (poison) for five thousand dollars, knowing that whoever naively asks for potions to cheat love and to meddle with human nature will inevitably return to ask for a potion to reverse the effects and stop the madness that will undoubtedly occur.
"It is not as dear," said the old man, "as the glove-cleaner, or life-cleaner, as I sometimes call it. No. That is five thousand dollars, never a penny less. One has to be older than you are, to indulge in that sort of thing. One has to save up for it. ... Then customers come back, later in life, when they are better off, and want more expensive things. Here you are. You will find it very effective."
In this context, Collier implies that if Alan does end up giving Diana the love potion, it won't be too long before he goes back to the shop to buy the expensive poison that will kill Diana, because he'll be overwhelmed by her obsessive love disorder.