The Grand Babylon Hotel | Page 7

on his face, that man might
have trembled for an explosion which should have blown the entire Grand Babylon into
the Thames.
Jules retired strategically to a corner. He had fired; it was the antagonist's turn. A long
and varied experience had taught Jules that a guest who embarks on the subjugation of a
waiter is almost always lost; the waiter has so many advantages in such a contest.

Chapter Two
HOW MR RACKSOLE OBTAINED HIS DINNER
NEVERTHELESS, there are men with a confirmed habit of getting their own way, even
as guests in an exclusive hotel: and Theodore Racksole had long since fallen into that
useful practice - except when his only daughter Helen, motherless but high-spirited girl,
chose to think that his way crossed hers, in which case Theodore capitulated and fell back.
But when Theodore and his daughter happened to be going one and the same road, which
was pretty often, then Heaven alone might help any obstacle that was so ill-advised as to
stand in their path. Jules, great and observant man though he was, had not noticed the
terrible projecting chins of both father and daughter, otherwise it is possible he would
have reconsidered the question of the steak and Bass.
Theodore Racksole went direct to the entrance-hall of the hotel, and entered Miss
Spencer's sanctum.

'I want to see Mr Babylon,' he said, 'without the delay of an instant.'
Miss Spencer leisurely raised her flaxen head.
'I am afraid - ,' she began the usual formula. It was part of her daily duty to discourage
guests who desired to see Mr Babylon.
'No, no,' said Racksole quickly, 'I don't want any "I'm afraids." This is business. If you
had been the ordinary hotel clerk I should have slipped you a couple of sovereigns into
your hand, and the thing would have been done.
As you are not - as you are obviously above bribes - I merely say to you, I must see Mr
Babylon at once on an affair of the utmost urgency. My name is Racksole - Theodore
Racksole.'
'Of New York?' questioned a voice at the door, with a slight foreign accent.
The millionaire turned sharply, and saw a rather short, French-looking man, with a bald
head, a grey beard, a long and perfectly-built frock coat, eye-glasses attached to a minute
silver chain, and blue eyes that seemed to have the transparent innocence of a maid's.
'There is only one,' said Theodore Racksole succinctly.
'You wish to see me?' the new-comer suggested.
'You are Mr Felix Babylon?'
The man bowed.
'At this moment I wish to see you more than anyone else in the world,' said Racksole. 'I
am consumed and burnt up with a desire to see you, Mr Babylon.
I only want a few minutes' quiet chat. I fancy I can settle my business in that time.'
With a gesture Mr Babylon invited the millionaire down a side corridor, at the end of
which was Mr Babylon's private room, a miracle of Louis XV furniture and tapestry: like
most unmarried men with large incomes, Mr Babylon had 'tastes' of a highly expensive
sort.
The landlord and his guest sat down opposite each other. Theodore Racksole had met
with the usual millionaire's luck in this adventure, for Mr Babylon made a practice of not
allowing himself to be interviewed by his guests, however distinguished, however
wealthy, however pertinacious. If he had not chanced to enter Miss Spencer's office at
that precise moment, and if he had not been impressed in a somewhat peculiar way by the
physiognomy of the millionaire, not all Mr Racksole's American energy and ingenuity
would have availed for a confabulation with the owner of the Grand Babylon Hotel that
night. Theodore Racksole, however, was ignorant that a mere accident had served him.
He took all the credit to himself.

'I read in the New York papers some months ago,' Theodore started, without even a
clearing of the throat, 'that this hotel of yours, Mr Babylon, was to be sold to a limited
company, but it appears that the sale was not carried out.'
'It was not,' answered Mr Babylon frankly, 'and the reason was that the middle-men
between the proposed company and myself wished to make a large secret profit, and I
declined to be a party to such a profit. They were firm; I was firm; and so the affair came
to nothing.'
'The agreed price was satisfactory?'
'Quite.'
'May I ask what the price was?'
'Are you a buyer, Mr Racksole?'
'Are you a seller, Mr Babylon?'
'I am,' said Babylon, 'on terms. The price was four hundred thousand pounds, including
the leasehold and goodwill. But I sell only on the condition that the buyer does not
transfer the property to a limited company at