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"
"Why cannot they drink wine or--or ginger beer?"
"He tries to stop that. He would not be able to make any profits on
wine."
"Who?"
"The President."
And Mr. Keith proceeded to sketch the history of the establishment.
The Alpha and Omega Club had led a precarious existence. Often its life
dangled by a thread for lack of members, or because those members who
owed subscriptions were unable or unwilling to pay them. Such had been
the case before the accession of the new President. It hung its
drooping head; had almost withered away. Mr. Freddy Parker tended the
languid flower, and watered it--with whisky of his own composition.
It revived. Or rather (which amounts to the same thing) Mr. Parker
revived--sufficiently, at all events, to pay off some of the more
pressing of his private debts. Napoleon, or somebody, once remarked:
"L'ETAT, C'EST MOI." Mr. Parker thought highly of a strong character
like Napoleon. He used to say, when talking things over with his lady
in her "boudoir" at the Residency:
"The Club, that's me.


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