I suppose; five bob a head.' And then he read out the bill, the total of which, wine and beer included, came to forty shillings. 'Five shillings a head, gentlemen, as I said. You and I can make a pretty good guess as to the figure; eh, Snengkeld?' And then he put down his two half-crowns on the waiter, as also did Mr. Snengkeld, and then Mr. Gape, and so on till it came to Mr. Kantwise.
'I think you and I will leave it, and settle at the bar,' said Kantwise, appealing to Dockwrath, and intending peace if peace were still possible.
'No,' shouted Moulder, from the other end of the table; 'let the man have his money now, and then his troubles will be over. If there’s to be any fuss about it, let’s have it out. I like to see the dinner bill settled as soon as the dinner is eaten. Then one gets an appetite for one’s supper.'
'I don’t think I have the change,’ said Kantwise, still putting off the evil day.
'I'll lend it you,’ said Moulder, putting his hand into his trousers-pockets. But the money was forthcoming out of Mr. Kantwise’s own proper repositories, and with slow motion he put down the five shillings one after the other.
And then the waiter came to Mr. Dockwrath. 'What's this?' said the attorney, taking up the bill and looking at it. The whole matter had been sufficiently explained to him, but nevertheless Mr. Moulder explained it again. 'In commercial rooms, sir, as no doubt you must be well aware, seeing that you have done us the honour of joining us here, the dinner bill is divided equally among all the gentlemen as sit down. It's the rule of the room, sir. You has what you like, and you calls for what you like, and conwiviality is thereby encouraged. The figure generally comes to five shillings, and you afterwards gives what you like to the waiter. That’s about it, aint it, James?'
'That’s the rule, sir, in all commercial rooms as I ever see,' said the waiter.
The matter had been so extremely well put by Mr. Moulder, and that gentleman’s words had carried with them so much conviction, that Dockwrath felt himself almost tempted to put down the money: as far as his sixteen children and general ideas of economy were concerned he would have done so; but his legal mind could not bear to be beaten. The spirit of litigation within him told him that the point was to be carried. Moulder, Gape, and Snengkeld together could not make him pay for wine he had neither ordered nor swallowed. His pocket was guarded by the law of the land, and not by the laws of any special room in which he might chance to find himself. 'I shall pay two shillings for my dinner,' said he, 'and sixpence for my beer;' and then he deposited the half-crown.
