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 thought that they would kill me there, but they gave me food on earthenware plates, and were nice and kind; then I was led off by a South African running and jumping champion, and I still remember a pretty girl who learnt Czech from me.

The second club is famous, ancient, and tremendously venerable; it used to be frequented by Herbert Spencer and Dickens and many others, all of whom the head waiter, major-domo or porter (or whoever he was) there mentioned to me; perhaps he had read all of them, for he seemed to be very refined and dignified, as keepers of records are wont to be. He led me through the whole of this historical place; showed me the library, the reading-room, the old engravings, the heated lavatories, bathrooms, the historical arm-chairs, the rooms where gentlemen smoke, other rooms where they write and smoke, and others where they smoke and read; on all sides was wafted the smell of tradition and old leather chairs. My word, if we had such old leather chairs