The
quality of the company improved, too--or retrograded, according to the
point of view. Now and then a pair of deer, with long tails and manes,
hitched to a spider-web of a wagon, would drive up to the front
entrance and a gentleman wearing a watch-chain, a solitaire diamond
ring, a polished silk hat, and a white overcoat with big pearl buttons,
would order "a pint of fiz" and talk in an undertone to Muffles while he
drank it. Often a number of these combinations would meet in Muffles's
back room and a quiet little game would last until daylight. The orders
then were for quarts, not pints. On one of these nights the Captain of
the Precinct was present in plain clothes. I learned this from
Bowser--from behind his hand.
One night Muffles was awakened by a stone thrown at his bedroom window.
He went downstairs and found two men in slouch hats; one had a black
carpet-bag. They talked some time together, and the three went down into
the cellar. When they came up the bag was empty.
The next morning one of those spider-wheeled buggies, driven by one of
the silk hat and pearl-buttoned gentlemen, accompanied by a friend,
stopped at the main gate.
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