Page:The Man with Two Left Feet.djvu/129



AC'S RESTAURANT—nobody calls it MacFarland's—is a mystery. It is off the beaten track. It is not smart. It does not advertise. It provides nothing nearer to an orchestra than a solitary piano, yet, with all these things against it, it is a success. In theatrical circles especially it holds a position which might turn the white lights of many a supper-palace green with envy.

This is mysterious. You do not expect Soho to compete with and even eclipse Piccadilly in this way. And when Soho does so compete, there is generally romance of some kind somewhere in the background.

Somebody happened to mention to me casually that Henry, the old waiter, had been at Mac's since its foundation.

"Me?" said Henry, questioned during a slack spell in the afternoon. "Rather!"

"Then can you tell me what it was that first gave the place the impetus which started it on its upward course? What causes should you say were responsible for its phenomenal prosperity? What"

"What gave it a leg-up? Is that what you're trying to get at?"

"Exactly. What gave it a leg-up? Can you tell me?"

"Me?" said Henry. "Rather!"

And he told me this chapter from the unwritten history of the London whose day begins when Nature's finishes.

Old Mr. MacFarland (said Henry) started the place fifteen years ago. He was a widower with one son and what you might call half a daughter. That's to say, he