He
will tell you in a whisper. 'Tonio discountenances custom; he keeps
his house-front black and forbidding; he gives you a pretty bad
dinner; he locks his door at the dining hour; but he knows spaghetti
as the boarding-house knows cold veal; and--he has deposited many
dollars in a certain Banco di-- something with many gold vowels in
the name on its windows.
To this restaurant Mr. Brunelli conducted Katy. The house was dark
and the shades were lowered; but Mr. Brunelli touched an electric
button by the basement door, and they were admitted.
Along a long, dark, narrow hallway they went and then through a
shining and spotless kitchen that opened directly upon a back yard.
The walls of houses hemmed three sides of the yard; a high, board
fence, surrounded by cats, the other. A wash of clothes was suspended
high upon a line stretched from diagonal corners. Those were property
clothes, and were never taken in by 'Tonio. They were there that wits
with defective pronunciation might make puns in connection with the
ragout.
A dozen and a half little tables set upon the bare ground were
crowded with Bohemia-hunters, who flocked there because 'Tonio
pretended not to want them and pretended to give them a good dinner.
There was a sprinkling of real Bohemians present who came for a
change because they were tired of the real Bohemia, and a smart
shower of the men who originate the bright sayings of Congressmen
and the little nephew of the well-known general passenger agent of
the Evansville and Terre Haute Railroad Company.
Pages:
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187