With the partridge, excellently cooked, I gave Mr. Treadwell my opinions as to the merits of the various pantomimes, and asked him to lunch with me next day, and to go and see a matinée at a music-hall. After the ice came coffee and old brandy, and Mr. Treadwell said that he would like to smoke a cigar.
The other diners had all finished their dinners, and we were the only occupiers of the big room, in luxurious quiet. Mr. Treadwell lay back in his chair and pulled at his cigar with the air of a man enjoying life.
I paid my bill: two dinners, £1: 1s.; one bottle '83, 15s.; two coffees, 1s.; two fine champagne, 3s.; cigar, 6d.; total, £2: O: 6. This done, I asked Mr. Treadwell where he would like to go and finish the evening; and he, waking from a day-dream, said, "Anywhere where they have a ballet."
"Heads the Empire, tails the Alhambra," I said as I tossed the coin, and it fell heads.
I wish I had not been so hasty in buying those classical concert tickets.
10th January.