Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: what I mean, as though the shopkeepers themselves understood that they were catering for a new class of people." " It is the triumph of your bourgeoisie," the Russian declared. " Your aristocrat is no longer able to survive. Noblesse oblige has no significance to the shopman. He wants the fat cheques, and he caters for the people who can write them. Let us pursue our reflections a little farther and in a different direction, my friend," he added, glancing at his watch. " Lunch with me at the Ritz, and we will see whether the cookery, too, has been adapted to the new tastes." Nigel hesitated for a moment, a somewhat curious hesitation which he many times afterwards remembered. " I am not very keen on restaurants for a week or two," he said doubtfully. " Besides, I had half promised to be at the club." " Not to-day," Karschoff insisted. " To-day let us listen to the call of the world. Woman is at her loveliest in the spring. The Ritz Restaurant will look like a bouquet of flowers. Perhaps ' One for you and one for me.' At any rate, one is sure of an omelette one can eat." The two men turned together towards Piccadilly. chapter{Section 4CHAPTER IY Luncheon at the Ritz was an almost unexpectedly pleasant meal. The two men sat at a table near the door and exchanged greetings with many acquaintances. Karschoff, who was in an unusually loquacious frame of mind, pointed out many of the habitue's of the place to his companion. " I am become a club and restaurant lounger in my old age," he declared, a little bitterly. " Almost a boulevardier. Still, what else is there for a man without a country to do? " " You know everybody," Nigel replied, without reference to his companion's lament. " Tell me who the woman is who has just entered? " Karschoff glanced in the ...