Everything was to be luxurious, but the luxuries were to be achieved at first cost. It had been a happy thought, and the club was said to prosper. Herr Vossner, the purveyor, was a jewel, and so carried on affairs that there was no trouble about anything. He would assist even in smoothing little difficulties as to the settling of card accounts, and had behaved with the greatest tenderness to the drawers of cheques whose bankers had harshly declared them to have "no effects." Herr Vossner was a jewel, and the Beargarden was a success. Perhaps no young man about town enjoyed the Beargarden more thoroughly than did Sir Felix Carbury. The club was in the close vicinity of other clubs, in a small street turning out of St. James's Street, and piqued itself on its outward quietness and sobriety. Why pay for stone-work for other people to look at;--why lay out money in marble pillars and cornices, seeing that you can neither eat such things, nor drink them, nor gamble with them? But the Beargarden had the best wines,--or thought that it had,--and the easiest chairs, and two billiard-tables than which nothing more perfect had ever been made to stand upon legs. Hither Sir Felix wended on that January afternoon as soon as he had his mother's cheque for 20 in his pocket.

Everything was luxurious, and the club was said to prosper. Herr Vossner, the purveyor, carried on affairs so that there was no trouble about anything, smoothing any little difficulties in the settling of accounts.
Perhaps no young man about town enjoyed the Beargarden more thoroughly than Sir Felix Carbury. The club was close to other clubs, in a small street off St. James's Street, and outwardly sober. Why pay for marble pillars and cornices, when you can neither eat such things, nor drink them, nor gamble with them? But the Beargarden had the best wines - or thought that it had - and the easiest chairs, and two perfect billiard-tables. Hither Sir Felix went with his mother's cheque for 20 in his pocket.
