“We occupy the entire building. It is our own, and a comparatively new one. We built it three years ago.”
“You mean this whole shebang is just one club?”
“Certainly.”
“Hum! I see. Well, I—”
“What were you going to say?”
“Nothin’. I was wonderin’ what fool thing I’d ask next. I’m more used to lodge rooms than I am to clubs, I guess. I’d like to take home a picture of this place to Theophilus Kenney. Theoph’s been raisin’ hob because the Odd Fellows built on to their buildin’. He said one room was enough for any society. ’Twould be, if we was all his kind of society. Theoph’s so small he could keep house in a closet. He’s always hollerin’ in meetin’ about his soul. I asked the minister if it didn’t seem ridic’lous for Kenney to make such a big noise over such a little thing. This where we get off?”
The dining room was a large and ornate apartment. Captain Elisha, when he first entered it, seemed about to ask another question, but choked it off and remained silent. Sylvester chose a table in a retired corner, and they sat down.
“Now, Captain Warren,” said the host, “what will you eat?”
Captain Elisha shook his head.
“You do the orderin’,” he replied dryly; “I’ll just set and be thankful, like the hen that found the china doorknob. Anything that suits you will do me, I guess.”