 accept?'
'I accept,' said Babylon, and added, 'You are very good, Mr Racksole.'
They strolled together back to the hôtel, saying nothing in particular, but feeling very content with each other's company.
'Many customers?' asked Felix Babylon.
'Very tolerable,' said Racksole, assuming as much of the air of the professional hôtel proprietor as he could. 'I think I may say in the storekeeper's phrase, that if there is any business about I am doing it.
To-night the people are all on the terrace in the portico—it's so confoundedly hot—and the consumption of ice is simply enormous—nearly as large as it would be in New York.'
'In that case,' said Babylon politely, 'let me offer you another cigar.'
'But I have not finished this one.'
'That is just why I wish to offer you another one. A cigar such as yours, my good friend, ought never to be smoked within the precincts of the Grand Babylon, not even by the proprietor of the Grand Babylon, and especially when all the guests are assembled in the portico. The fumes of it would ruin any hôtel.'
Theodore Racksole laughingly lighted the Rothschild Havana which Babylon gave him, and they entered the hôtel arm in arm. But no sooner had they mounted the steps than little Felix became the object of numberless greetings. It appeared that he had been highly popular among his quondam guests. At last they reached the managerial room, where Babylon was regaled on a chicken, and Racksole assisted him in the consumption of a bottle of Heidsieck Monopole, Carte d'Or.
'This chicken is almost perfectly grilled,' said Babylon at length. 'It is a credit to the house. But why, my dear Racksole, why in the name of Heaven did you quarrel with Rocco?'
'Then you have heard?'
'Heard! My dear friend, it was in every newspaper on the Continent. Some journals prophesied that the Grand Babylon would have to close its doors within half a year now that Rocco had deserted it. But of course I knew better. I knew that you must have a good reason for allowing Rocco to depart, and that you must have made arrangements in advance for a substitute.'
'As a matter of fact, I had not made arrangements in advance,' said Theodore Racksole, a little ruefully; 'but happily we have found in our second sous-chef an artist inferior only to Rocco himself. That, however, was
