Chapter 193: Fishing in Muddy Waters
Chapter 192: Fishing in Muddy Waters
The center point of the connecting line between St. James’s Palace and Piccadilly Circus is the elegant, comfortable, pleasant environment without losing the commercial atmosphere of St. James’s Square, and in the southwestern part of the square on King Street is situated, it is the Oelmac Club that has made countless London social celebrities fascinated.
Not far from the Oelmac Club stands the richly endowed National Library of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, as well as the Royal Naval and Military Association of the Royal Navy and Army for British officers to communicate and deal with problems, and the Naval and Military Club, which is exclusively for the entertainment of the Royal Navy.
Elder looked up at the postal number – SW1Y 6SL – marked by the black iron doorplate affixed to the white wall.
A few plain letters were enough to show what kind of prime location it was situated in.
Although today’s weather is not good, dark clouds cover the sun, and the road is still drizzling with a cold drizzle, a cold wind blowing, lifting the corner of Elder’s trench coat.
“Achoo!”
Elder sneezed, wiping his nose with a handkerchief he drew from his pocket while looking around in a less-than-satisfied manner.
“Damn! Where did Arthur go? He didn’t really blend in, did he? Why didn’t he know to wait for me, it’s only been one trip to the party and now he’s learning to fucking eat alone.”
Elder’s mouth cursed, but all to the door, this time let him go back, he really some reluctance.
Mr. Carter paced back and forth in front of the Ormac Club with his hands behind his back, thinking about it, he decided to wait a little longer, maybe Arthur would have a conscience and come out to pick him up?
The guard at the door stared at this suspicious young man for half a day, after a while, he and his companion exchanged glances, and finally could not help but come forward and ask: “This gentleman, are you a guest who has received an invitation from the club and has been invited to come here?”
“Ah ……” Elder was asked by him, just vaguely responded: “No …… that’s right, I have received an invitation to come, I’m not waiting for my companion to come over?”
“Your companion?” The guard pondered for a moment, politely probing, “May I have the honor of learning your name? We have a record here of all those who are eligible to visit the Ormac Club. If we have checked it correctly, why don’t you go in first and warm up, it’s just too hard to wait outside for your friends. Look at you, you’re sneezing.”
“My name?” Elder was momentarily puzzled whether he should tell the truth to the other party or not, and he hesitated for a while before opening his mouth.
The guard, seeing him in such a difficult situation, pursed his lips and turned to ask again, “Or your friend’s name will do.”
“Friend’s name ……,” Elder held his tongue for half a day, still not knowing how to respond.
The guard saw his appearance, and immediately decided that this must be another guy who wanted to enter the club for nothing, and the smile on his face disappeared, and was replaced with a cold and serious look.
“This gentleman, if you can’t explain yourself clearly, then please leave here immediately.”
Elder’s young man’s arrogance rose when he was so provoked, and he glared, “Isn’t it just a friend’s name? I didn’t say it because I didn’t want to offend his honorable name earlier, and I was also afraid of scaring you guys by saying it. I’m so considerate for you guys, but you guys are so insensitive!”
The guard impatiently drew the small short stick from his waist, “So, who exactly is your friend? If you can’t tell me, I’ll have to treat you to something delicious.”
Elder glanced at the stick, did some mental calculations, grunted, tilted his head and spoke, “For your information, my friend is the famous Arthur ……”
The guard raised an eyebrow, “Arthur what?”
“Arthur …… uh …… Arthur Wellesley!”
“Arthur Wellesley?” The guard was surprised, “The Duke of Wellington is your friend?”
Elder sheepishly skimmed his head, “At least that’s what I think of myself, whether he sees it that way or not is none of my business.”
“Ugh! Fuck you!” The guard heard this and gasped, raising his hand ready to teach Elder a lesson.
But before his arm could fall, a large calloused hand had taken the lead in gripping his wrist.
The guard looked up in shock at the gentleman who appeared behind Elder, dressed in a neat dinner party formal tuxedo, wearing a monocle, combing his greasy hair, and topping his head with a black bowler hat, and froze as he opened his mouth to ask, “May I ask who you are?”
Arthur stretched out two fingers and clipped a business card from his jacket pocket and handed it over, “Please inform the club owner that Mr. Moscheles of the London Philharmonic Society has suddenly become unwell and may not be able to play at the invitation today. I am the pianist Arthur Hastings who has come in Mr. Moscheles’ place, here is my card, please take a look at it.”
The guard took the card and glanced at it, and it read–
Name: Arthur Hastings
Position: pianist of the Third Orchestra of the London Philharmonic Society
Even, the business card was stamped with the red seal of the London Philharmonic Society.
But for some reason, the business card looked as if it had just been printed, and it still felt wet when his hand was pressed against the ink.
Perhaps the weather was too humid?
The guard thought so, and his expression softened as he smiled back, ”So it’s Mr. Hastings, you’re probably new to the orchestra, aren’t you? I’m sorry to hear that Mr. Moscheles is unwell, but you seem to be mistaken about the time, we usually have a pianist play in the evening. Besides, why did you forget to bring any other accompaniment when you came today?”
Arthur laughed, “You misunderstood my intention, I didn’t come here today to play, but to try out the piano. As you guessed, I’m new here and unfamiliar with the instruments in the Olmac Club, and I was afraid that I might mess up the playing, that’s why I purposely came to audition in the afternoon when there weren’t too many people.”
“Ah! I see.”
The guard suddenly realized, “You are really dedicated to your work. Come on in then, I’ll accompany you on your audition, as long as you don’t touch anything else.” With that, the guard made way for Arthur, who looked aside at Elder, who was scowling at him, and simply took off his jacket and threw his clothes into his hands.
Arthur tugged at the collar of his shirt, “Elder, follow me in.”
The guard asked suspiciously, “Mr. Hastings, who’s this next to you?”
This time, not waiting for Arthur to speak, Elder grabbed the answer, “I am Mr. Hastings’ piano assistant, you may not know, Mr. Hastings will be promoted to conductor of the orchestra in a short period of time, and I will take his place as the pianist at that time.”
The guard looked at him in such a smelly manner, originally wanted to say something, but he glanced at Arthur next to him, and swallowed the dirty words that came to his mouth after all.
He opened his mouth and said, “This gentleman, let’s forget about it this time, but if you come over next time, please attend in formal attire.”
At that, the guard led Arthur into the front hall with a smile on his face, Elder stared at his back with wide eyes and couldn’t help but curse, “Ugh! For fuck’s sake, you’re a janitor, what’s with the bull?”
Arthur walked into the Olmac Club and scanned the furnishings of the house back and forth.
The hall here is much more spacious than what he expected, the first thing that introduces to his eyes when he walks in the door is a few bookshelves leaning against the wall, a few coffee tables and sofa chairs are placed beside the bookshelves, and through the aisle paved with mahogany floor, there are a few poker tables used for entertainment, a separate tea room, a wide dining room and a ballroom are all set up in here as well.
Not far from the ballroom, there is an ivory-white rotary staircase with all kinds of carvings and decorations, and judging from this situation, there should be a lot of things on the second floor of the club that are not known to outsiders.
Perhaps because it was too early in the morning, or perhaps because of the bad weather.
At this time in the Olmark Club, the flow of people is not too large, in the spacious hall, there are only a few gentlemen who are known to be old gamblers each grabbing a hand of poker sitting around the green cloth table with a scoreboard playing ‘Cribbage’.
Of course, it wasn’t necessarily that they didn’t want to experience something else, but they just couldn’t pull out a deck of Italian tarot poker to play Tarocchi or French poker to play Piquet in the middle of the day.
Gamblers naturally like to experience new games, but the importation of foreign poker is strictly prohibited in Britain due to the Poker Act.
Though privately, gamblers would still play secretly, in broad daylight, they still had to be mindful of the repercussions.
After all, pulling out a pair of poker with different specifications in public can actually be considered smuggling strictly speaking.
In broad daylight, one should still play more patriotic poker in Britannia.
The old gentleman who was facing Arthur in the Gambler looked up and glanced at the somewhat faceless Arthur, flung out his bladder and threw out a Jack, muttering, “I thought it was my sandwich delivery. That’s the worst thing about clubs, even if there’s a small crowd at noon, the least you can do is send a cook to keep watch.”
Arthur didn’t say much at that, he just smiled and nodded his head at the other man before being led by the guards to the piano that was set up in the center of the ballroom.
The guard politely took off his hat and said, “Please wait here for a moment, Mrs. Cowper happens to be here today, I will go and report your situation with Mr. Moscheles to him.”
With those words, the guard turned around in a hurry and went up to the second floor.
Elder, who looked a little nervous on his first arrival, took his arm and pinned Arthur, “Did you really join the London Philharmonic Society?”
Arthur took off his white gloves and huffed into his palms, trying to soften his frozen and somewhat stiff palms, “Will join.”
“Huh?” Elder’s eyes widened, “What about Mr. Moscheles?”
Arthur craned his head to his side, signaling him to keep his voice down, “I made that up, of course.”
“Aren’t you afraid of wearing out your welcome if you do that?” Elder looked back and forth, his hands going nowhere, “Damn! I should have known that if you went home and changed your clothes, I would have gone back and changed too. I’m wearing this, and when people see me, they’ll think I’m an errand boy for the neighborhood restaurant.”
As soon as his words fell, a few gamblers at a table not far away greeted him, “Ugh! That one over there! Where are the sandwiches we ordered?”
Elder sniffed and couldn’t help but slap his face, “Arthur, Arthur! See, what did I say? Fuck, these guys really think I’m a delivery boy.”
Arthur saw this and just relaxed, “Look on the bright side, Elder. Anyone who can come here is rich and famous, so if you go and run errands for them, maybe these old gentlemen will take a liking to you and better marry their daughters to you. And since you’re no good with girls, why don’t you think differently and start with their old fathers?”
“Hmm?” Elder rubbed the stubble on his chin, “That …… seems to make some sense!”
“Hey! That little guy over there! Aren’t you the restaurant guy?”
“No, I am.” Elder was as swift as a gust of wind, he ran over and nimbly took out a pen and paper from his pocket, straightened his back and opened his mouth in a serious manner, “I’m sorry to inform you gentlemen, but the sandwiches are all sold out, I wonder if you’d like to eat something else?”
(End of chapter)