'Not heart disease?'
'No.'
'Then what is it?' asked the Prince.
'I may be able to answer that question after the post-mortem,' said
the doctor. 'I certainly can't answer it now. The symptoms are
unusual to a degree.'
The inspector of police began to write in a note-book.
Chapter Six IN THE GOLD ROOM
AT the Grand Babylon a great ball was given that night in the Gold
Room, a huge saloon attached to the hotel, though scarcely part of
it, and certainly less exclusive than the hotel itself. Theodore
Racksole knew nothing of the affair, except that it was an
entertainment offered by a Mr and Mrs Sampson Levi to their
friends. Who Mr and Mrs Sampson Levi were he did not know, nor
could anyone tell him anything about them except that Mr
Sampson Levi was a prominent member of that part of the Stock
Exchange familiarly called the Kaffir Circus, and that his wife was
a stout lady with an aquiline nose and many diamonds, and that
they were very rich and very hospitable. Theodore Racksole did
not want a ball in his hotel that evening, and just before dinner he
had almost a mind to issue a decree that the Gold Room was to be
closed and the ball forbidden, and Mr and Mrs Sampson Levi
might name the amount of damages suffered by them. His reasons
for such a course were threefold - first, he felt depressed and
uneasy; second, he didn't like the name of Sampson Levi; and,
third, he had a desire to show these so-called plutocrats that their
wealth was nothing to him, that they could not do what they chose
with Theodore Racksole, and that for two pins Theodore Racksole
would buy them up, and the whole Kaffir Circus to boot.
Pages:
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70