"
"_They draw the blinds now (put in Otway) under the Lighting Order:
but in those days the Ritz was given--I won't say to advertising its
opulence--but to allowing a glimpse of real comfort to the itinerant
millionaire. Jimmy resumes:--_
"'Now, look here,' said I, indicating the show inside: 'I wasn't
hungry to start with: and I suggest we've both inhaled enough garlic
to put us off the manger for a fortnight. As for the bucket, you've
exceeded already, and I have taken more than is going to be good for
me--a subtle difference which I won't pause here and now to explain.
It's a kindly suggestion of yours," said I; 'but I put it to you that
it's time for good little Progressives to be in their beds, and
you'll just take a taxi from the rank on the slope, trundle home to
Wimbledon and go bye-bye.'
"Farrell wasn't listening. He had his shoulders planted against a
pillar of the portico, and had fallen into a brown study, staring in
upon the giddy throng.
"'When we look,' said he slowly, like an orator in a dream--'when we
are privileged to contemplate, as we are at this moment, such a
spectacle of the idle Ritz--excuse me, the idle Rich--and their
goings on, and countless poor folk in the East End with nothing
but a herring--if that--between them and to-morrow's sunrise--
well, I don't know how it strikes you, but to me it is an Object
Lesson.
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