‘I won’t go,’ he said, determinedly.
Vandeloup looked at him with a peculiar gleam in his
dark eyes, and bowed.
‘Let me persuade you, Monsieur,’ he said,
blandly, holding the door of the cab open.
Meddlechip glanced at him, and then, with a sigh of
resignation, entered the cab, followed by Vandeloup.
‘Where to, sir?’ asked the cabman, through
the trap.
‘To Leslie’s Supper Rooms,’ replied
the Frenchman, and the cab drove off.
THE CASE OF ADELE BLONDET
Leslie’s Supper Rooms in Bourke Street East
were very well known— that is, among a
certain class. Religious people and steady businessmen
knew nothing about such a place except by reputation,
and looked upon it, with horror, as a haunt of vice
and dissipation.
Though Leslie’s, in common with other places
had to close at a certain hour, yet when the shutters
were up, the door closed, and the lights extinguished
in the front of the house, there was plenty of life
and bustle going on at the back, where there were charmingly
furnished little rooms for supper parties. Barty
Jarper had engaged one of these apartments, and with
about a dozen young men was having a good time of
it when Vandeloup and Meddlechip drove up. After
dismissing the cab and looking up and down the street
to see that no policeman was in sight, Vandeloup knocked
at the door in a peculiar manner, and it was immediately
opened in a stealthy kind of way. Gaston gave
his name, whereupon they were allowed to enter, and
the door was closed after them in the same quiet manner,
all of which was very distasteful to Mr Meddlechip,
who, being a public man and a prominent citizen, felt
that he was breaking the laws he had assisted to make.
He looked round in some disgust at the crowds of waiters,
and at the glimpses he caught every now and then of
gentlemen in evening dress, and what annoyed him more
than anything else—ladies in bright array.
Oh! a dissipated place was Leslie’s, and even
in the daytime had a rakish-looking appearance as if
it had been up all night and knew a thing or two.
Mr Meddlechip would have retreated from this den of
iniquity if he could, but as he wanted to have a thorough
explanation with Vandeloup, he meekly followed the
Frenchman through a well-lighted passage, with statues
on either side holding lamps, to a little room beautifully
furnished, wherein a supper table was laid out.
Here the waiter who conducted them took their hats
and Meddlechip’s coat and hung them up, then
waited respectfully for M. Vandeloup to give his orders.
A portly looking waiter he was, with a white waistcoat,
a white shirt, which bulged out in a most obtrusive
manner, and a large white cravat, which was tied round
an equally large white collar. When he walked
he rolled along like a white-crested wave, and with
his napkin under his arm, the heel of one foot in
the hollow of the other, and his large red face, surmounted
by a few straggling tufts of black hair, he was truly
wonderful to behold.
