The Lion's Share by Arnold Bennett
page 79 of 434 (18%)
page 79 of 434 (18%)
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palatial façades that were continually shaken by the rushing tumult of
electric cars. Tommy jumped out and pushed a button, and the door automatically split in two, disclosing a vast and dim tunnel. Tommy ran within, and came out again with a coatless man in a black-and-yellow striped waistcoat and a short white apron. This man, Musa, and the two chauffeurs entered swiftly into a complex altercation, which endured until Audrey had paid the chauffeurs and all the trunks had been transported behind the immense door and the door bangingly shut. "Vehy amusing, isn't it?" whispered Miss Ingate caustically to Audrey. "Aren't they dears?" "Madame Dubois's establishment is on the third and fourth floors," said Nick. They climbed a broad, curving, carpeted staircase. "We're here," said Audrey to Miss Ingate after scores of stairs. Miss Ingate, breathless, could only smile. And Audrey profoundly felt that she was in Paris. The mere shape of the doorknob by the side of a brass plate lettered "Madame Dubois" told her that she was in an exotic land. And in the interior of Madame Dubois's establishment Tommy and Nick together drew apart the curtains, opened the windows, and opened the shutters of a pleasantly stuffy sitting-room. Everybody leaned out, and they saw the superb thoroughfare, straight and interminable, and the moving roofs of the tram-cars, and dwarfs on the pavements. The night was mild |
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