silence, a society silence, a refined silence, the silence of a gentleman among gentlemen.
I went into other clubs as well; there are many hundreds of them, various in breed and purpose, but the best ones are all in Piccadilly or thereabouts, and they have old leather arm-chairs, the ritual of silence, flawless waiters, and the ban on women; as you see, these are great advantages. Besides this, they are built in the classical style, and of stone, which is black with smoke and white with rain; the interior contains a kitchen, huge rooms, stillness, tradition, hot and cold water, a number of portraits and billiard tables, and many other noteworthy things. There are also political clubs, and women’s clubs and night-clubs, but these I did not visit.
This would be a suitable place to meditate on social life, manly monasticism, good cooking, old portraits, the English character and several other cognate questions, but as I am a wayfaring man I must move on to more and more new discoveries.
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