Page 63 - down-and-out-in-paris-and-london

‘At the Hotel X, near the Place de la Concorde—five hun-
dred francs a month, and food. I have been working there
today. Name of Jesus Christ, how I have eaten!’
After ten or twelve hours’ work, and with his game leg,
his first thought had been to walk three kilometres to my ho-
tel and tell me the good news! What was more, he told me to
meet him in the Tuileries the next day during his afternoon
interval, in case he should be able to steal some food for me.
At the appointed time I met Boris on a public bench. He un-
did his waistcoat and produced a large, crushed, newspaper
packet; in it were some minced veal, a wedge of Gamembert
cheese, bread and an eclair, all jumbled together.
‘VOILA!’ said Boris, ‘that’s all I could smuggle out for
you. The doorkeeper is a cunning swine.’
It is disagreeable to eat out of a newspaper on a public
seat, especially in the Tuileries, which are generally full of
pretty girls, but I was too hungry to care. While I ate, Bo-
ris explained that he was working in the cafeterie of the
hotel—that is, in English, the stillroom. It appeared that
the cafeterie was the very lowest post in the hotel, and a
dreadful come-down for a waiter, but it would do until the
Auberge de Jehan Gottard opened. Meanwhile I was to meet
Boris every day in the Tuileries, and he would smuggle out
as much food as he dared. For three days we continued with
this arrangement, and I lived entirely on the stolen food.
Then all our troubles came to an end, for one of the PLON-
GEURS left the Hotel X, and on Boris’s recommendation I
was given a job there myself.

Down and Out in Paris and London