If a man who had lived the
club life of London returns from abroad, he can always run across
someone he knows in the circle of the Empire about ten o'clock at night.
Jack was, however, not his old self that he had been before dinner. His
brow was now heavy and thoughtful, and he appeared deeply immersed in
some intricate problem, for his eyes were fixed vacantly when
opportunity was afforded him to think, and he appeared to desire to
avoid his friends rather than to greet them.
After the theater I induced him to come round to the Cecil, and in the
wicker chair in the big portico before the entrance we sat to smoke our
final cigars. It is a favorite spot of mine when in London, for at
afternoon, when the string band plays and the Americans and other
cosmopolitans drink tea, there is a continual coming and going, a little
panorama of life that to a student of men like myself is intensely
interesting. And at night it is just as amusing to sit there in the
shadow and watch the people returning from the theaters or dances and to
speculate as to whom and what they are.
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