They swallowed their tots of brandy and went out. In the street, Tonio and April took their leave and slipped into a building that looked like a cheap hotel. Hugh presumed they were going to take a room for an hour, or perhaps for the night. He wondered whether to go on with Edward and Micky. He was not having a very good time, but he was curious to know what went on at Nellie's. He had decided to try debauchery, so he probably ought to see the evening out, not quit halfway, he thought in the end.
Nellie's was in Princes Street, off Leicester Square. There were two uniformed commissionaires at the door. As the three young men arrived, the commissionaires were turning away a middle-aged man in a bowler hat. "Evening dress only," said one of the commissionaires over the man's protests.
They seemed to know Edward and Micky, for one touched his hat and the other opened the door. They went down a long passage to another door. They were inspected through a peephole, and then the door opened.
It was a bit like walking into a drawing room in a big London house. Fires blazed in two large grates, there were sofas, chairs and small tables everywhere, and the room was full of men and women in evening dress.
However, it only took another moment to see that this was no ordinary drawing room. Most of the men had their hats on. About half of them were smoking--something that was not permitted in polite drawing rooms--and some had their coats off and their ties undone. Most of the women were fully dressed but a few seemed to be in their underwear. Some of them were sitting on men's laps, others were kissing men, and one or two were permitting themselves to be fondled intimately.
For the first time in his life Hugh was in a brothel.
It was noisy, with men shouting jokes, women laughing, and a fiddler somewhere playing a waltz. Hugh followed Micky and Edward as they walked the length of the room. The walls were hung with pictures of naked women and copulating couples, and Hugh began to feel aroused. At the far end, under a huge oil painting of a complex outdoor orgy, sat the fattest person Hugh had ever seen: a vast-bosomed, heavily painted woman in a silk gown like a purple tent. She was sitting on a big regal chair and surrounded by girls. Behind her was a broad, red-carpeted staircase that presumably led up to bedrooms.
Edward and Micky approached the throne and bowed, and Hugh followed suit.
Edward said: "Nell, my pet, allow me to present my cousin, Mr. Hugh Pilaster."
