Within a
few months Chaffey's underwent a transformation; it was pulled down,
rebuilt, enlarged, beautified; nothing left of its old self but the
name. In place of the homely eating-house there stood a large hall,
painted and gilded and set about with mirrors, furnished with marble
tables and cane-bottomed chairs--to all appearances a restaurant on
the France-Italian pattern. Yet Chaffey's remained English,
flagrantly English, in its viands and its waiters. The new
proprietor aimed at combining foreign glitter with the prices and
the entertainment acceptable to a public of small means. Moreover,
he prospered. The doors were now open from nine o'clock in the
morning to twelve at night. There was a bar for the supply of
alcoholic drinks--the traditional porter had always been fetched
from a neighbouring house--and frivolities such as tea and coffee
were in constant demand.
This change told grievously upon Mr. Sparkes. At the first mention
of it he determined to resign but the weakness in his character
shrank from such a decided step, and he allowed himself to be drawn
into a painfully false position.
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