for Catesby, and for the "First Murderer," whom he praises for his
thoughtfulness in coming for the "warrant," that he might be admitted to
their victim.

"Well thought upon; I have it here about me.
When you have done, repair to Crosby place."

Probably the First Murderer lunched there, four hundred years ago, "when
he had done as I did now"; but, in the mean time, Henry VIII. had given
Crosby Place to a rich Italian merchant, one Anthony Bonvice; later,
ambassadors had been received in it; the first Earl of Northampton had
enlarged it, and dwelt in it as lord mayor; in 1638 the East India
Company had owned it, and later yet, in 1673, it was used for a
Presbyterian meeting-house; but in 1836 it was restored to its ancient
form and function. I do not know how long it has been an eating-house,
but I hope it may long remain so, for the sensation and refreshment of
Americans who love a simple and good refection in a mediaeval setting,
at a cost so moderate that they must ever afterwards blush for it. You
penetrate to its innermost perpendicularity through a passage that
enclosed a "quick-lunch" counter, and climb from a most noble banquet-
hall crammed with hundreds of mercantile gentlemen "feeding like one" at
innumerable little tables, to a gallery where the musicians must have
sat of old. There it was that Phyllis found and neat-handedly served my
friend and me, gently experiencing a certain difficulty in our combined
addition, but mastering the arithmetical problem presently, and taking
our tip with an air of surprise which it never created in any of the
English-learning Swiss, French, or Italian Strephons who elsewhere
ministered to us.

The waitresses at Crosby Place were of a girlish dignity which never