Page:Yellow Claw 1920.djvu/279

 “In Paris,” continued the visitor, “I am a member of a select and cozy little club; near the Boulevard Beaumarchais.…”

“I have heard of it,” interjected Malpas—“on the Rue St. Claude?”

“That indeed is its situation,” replied the other with surprise. “You know someone who is a member?”

Sir Brian Malpas hesitated for ten seconds or more; then, crossing the room and reclosing the window, he turned, facing his visitor across the large room.

“I was a member, myself, during the time that I lived in Paris,” he said, in a hurried manner which did not entirely serve to cover his confusion.

“My dear Sir Brian! We have at least one taste in common!”

Sir Brian Malpas passed his hand across his brow with a weary gesture well-known to fellow Members of Parliament, for it often presaged the abrupt termination of a promising speech.

“I curse the day that I was appointed to Pekin,” he said; “for it was in Pekin that I acquired the opium habit. I thought to make it my servant; it has made me”…

“What! you would give it up?”

Sir Brian surveyed the speaker with surprise again.

“Do you doubt it?”

“My dear Sir Brian!” cried the Frenchman, now