has to make allowance for these word pictures. But here we are."

"Have a private room, sir?" asked an attendant, for they had stepped
into a hallway leading to private dining rooms up stairs. "We have nice
rooms for private parties. If you expect ladies you can wait for them
there."

Just then a lady, unaccompanied, came through the swinging doors and
darted to the elevator. In a low tone she told the attendant to show her
to No. 7, where she would wait. Mr. Dunbar and Chiquita rather
undecidedly followed into the elevator and were whisked up to the second
floor, where they sauntered along toward an open door. Merry peals of
laughter wafted over transoms and a sudden opening of one door showed a
party of five seated round a table, while a sixth member, one of the
fair sex, was standing on the table. Then the door shut out the scene.
Mr. Dunbar gasped a little, but concluded to go back to the ground floor
and have a lunch in the main restaurant. They were shown seats well back
from the front of the place, in a position commanding a good view of the
tables, all of which seemed crowded.

"While we are waiting for our lunch we can study the people," said
Chiquita. "I guess the rooms up stairs are used by theatrical people and
they give little dramas of their own."

"Yes, I should judge it to be dramatic," answered Mr. Dunbar grimly. "Do
you notice at every table in the room some one is drinking, either a
malt beverage or wine, and at a majority of the tables some one is
smoking?" asked he of Chiquita.

"Yes, I presume they came here to forget the dark spots of a day's life
and to drown sorrow in drink and music. You have not spoken of the
classic strains coming from that harp and two fiddles."

Mr. Dunbar smiled audibly at the reference to music.

"Well, I don't consider this such an awful place for a wicked man, a man
of the world; every one is well behaved and there is no loud noise, but
these scenes lead to others still worse and the temptations offered here
require a goodly sized purse and larger salaries to support this
extravagance than the average man commands. But it is midnight and we
must make our way to the resort in the next block."

Descending a steep stairway they found themselves at the end of a long
room. The air was reeking with the fumes of smoke, stale beer and
sickening perfumery. Shouts and loud guffaws mingled with shrill peals
of screamy laughter. Glasses tinkled amid the disconsolate strain