Page:Firecrackers a realistic novel.pdf/199

 at a late hour. Paul, indeed, it was beginning to be recognized, had at last become a regular business man.

Entering the Moloch Club one day, alone, he was greeted with applause.

Aren't you going to introduce us?

How's Delilah?

Growing up, eh? was Jack Draycott's interrogative comment, while Florizel Hammond burst into song:

The crowd took up the refrain. Even George Everest, busy at the ticker, managed to get in with

while one white-bearded old fellow whose paunch and buttocks occupied fully two-thirds of a broad couch, giving him the appearance of a prosperous Easter egg, bawled out in a deep bass that drowned all the others:

Paul received this bantering with disarming good-nature. It added, indeed, to his happiness, caus-