It was a large room, but there was little empty floor space and the few tables and many chairs left almost no room in which customers could move about. There were not many women in the bar and the few there seemed to keep as far from Miss Shapely as possible. “It doesn’t do,” she confided in Carolus. “It’s all right if they come in with a gentleman, otherwise I don’t encourage it. You never know.” “Quite,” said Carolus understandingly. Conversation was animated but never rowdy, and there were no groups of men who stood with bent heads while one of them talked in a low voice till all stood up to laugh—in other words no dirty stories. Miss Shapely dealt with demands for drinks or deputed them to Fred, and all was order and decorum. “We’ve missed dinner,” said Rupert Priggley. “Do you think we could get a sandwich?” Carolus asked Miss Shapely. “I’ll send to the kitchen,” she said, as though unable in her august situation to deal with the matter directly.
What do You think about Jack On The Gallows Tree (1988)?
