Page 120 - down-and-out-in-paris-and-london

locked the restaurant. At a glance I saw what the ‘few little
things’ amounted to. It was briefly this: that the alterations
had not been touched since our last visit. The stoves for the
kitchen had not arrived, the water and electricity had not
been laid on, and there was all manner of painting, polish-
ing and carpentering to be done. Nothing short of a miracle
could open the restaurant within ten days, and by the look of
things it might collapse without even opening. It was obvi-
ous what had happened. The PATRON was short of money,
and he had engaged the staff (there were four of us) in order
to use us instead of workmen. He would be getting our ser-
vices almost free, for waiters are paid no wages, and though
he would have to pay me, he would not be feeding me till the
restaurant opened. In effect, he had swindled us of several
hundred francs by sending for us before the restaurant was
open. We had thrown up a good job for nothing.
Boris, however, was full of hope. He had only one idea
in his head, namely, that here at last was a chance of being
a waiter and wearing a tail coat once more. For this he was
quite willing to do ten days’ work unpaid, with the chance
of being left jobless in the end. ‘Patience!’ he kept saying.
‘That will arrange itself. Wait till the restaurant opens, and
we’ll get it all back. Patience, MON AMI!’
We needed patience, for days passed and the restaurant
did not even progress towards opening. We cleaned out
the cellars, fixed the shelves, distempered the walls, pol-
ished the woodwork, whitewashed the ceiling, stained the
floor; but the main work, the plumbing and gas-fitting and
electricity, was still not done, because the PATRON could

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