"
Luisella's grotto-tavern had become quite a famous rendezvous. You
could drop in there at any hour and always find company to your liking.
Don Francesco had a good deal to do with its discovery; he discovered,
at all events, the second eldest of the four orphan sisters who managed
the house. After a time, having convinced himself that they were all
good penitents and being a kindly sort of man, he thought that other
people might like to share in the seductions which the place afforded.
He took foreign friends there from time to time, and none were
disappointed. The wine was excellent. Russians, excluded from the Club
by Mr. Parker's severity, frequented the spot in considerable numbers.
They were nicely treated there. Not many nights previously one of the
Master's disciples, the athletic young Peter Krasnojabkin, who was
credited with being a protege of Madame Steynlin's, had distinguished
himself by drinking sixteen bottles at a sitting. He afterwards smashed
a few chairs and things, for which he apologized so prettily next
morning that the girls would not hear of his paying for the damage.
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