"Welcome, boys," said Nell. "Come and entertain these beautiful girls."
"In a while, Nell. Is there a game tonight?"
"There's always a game at Nellie's," she said, and waved toward a door at one side of the room.
Edward bowed again and said: "We'll be back."
"Don't fail me, boys!"
They moved off. "She acts like royalty!" Hugh murmured.
Edward laughed. "This is the top stew in London. Some of the people who bow to her tonight will be bowing to the Queen in the morning."
They went into the next room, where twelve or fifteen men were sitting around two baccarat tables. Each table had a white line chalked about a foot from its edge, and the players pushed colored counters across the line to place bets. Most of them had drinks beside them, and the air was full of cigar smoke.
There were a few empty chairs at one of the tables, and Edward and Micky immediately sat down. A waiter brought them some counters, and they each signed a receipt. Hugh said quietly to Edward: "What are the stakes?"
"A pound minimum."
It occurred to Hugh that if he played and won he could afford one of the women in the next room. He did not actually have as much as a pound in his pockets, but obviously Edward's credit was good here.... Then he remembered Tonio's losing ten guineas at the ratting. "I shan't play," he said.
Micky said languidly: "We never imagined you would."
Hugh felt awkward. He wondered whether to ask a waiter to bring him a drink, then he reflected that it would probably cost him a week's wages. The banker dealt cards from a shoe and Micky and Edward placed bets. Hugh decided to slip away.
