A Servant of Satan: Romantic Career of Prado the Assassin — page 129: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

ry: a " » | _? A SERVANT OF SATAN. 121 one. Hospitality is practised on a scale unknown in Europe. No invitation is considered necessary to dine or lunch with one’s friends, for everybody keeps open house, and an addition of half a dozen impromptu guests at the dinner-table is quite an ordinary occurrence. The ladies in particular are accustomed to a life of such indolence and ease that they are utterly incapable of doing anything for yy \ LEFT IN CHARGE OF MRS. VAN DER BECK. themselves. They lie all day on their sofas or in their ham- mocks, clad in diaphanous muslin peignoirs, eating bon- bons, smoking cigarettes or drinking small cups of coffee. In the cool hours of the evening, however, they seem to wake up, and go to the dinners, balls, and the theater, and are then as lively and loquacious as possible, banishing ECO A MIKE) ere) <yefe)