'Where to, sir?' asked the cabman, through the trap.
'To Leslie's Supper Rooms,' replied the Frenchman, and the cab drove
off.
CHAPTER IV
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.
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