1939 The Gentleman's Companion volume II Beeing an Exotic Drinking Book

THE EXOTIC DRINKING BOOK

were there with a person not apt to mention, listening to Tommy Ly–

man sing

Montmartre Rose,

and wondering what we were going to

do next day, when a stalwart young chap barged up and invited him–

self to our table-a practice which we are not likely to view with any

great amount of enthusiasm in Paris, Paraguay or Patagonia.

But this time it was all right. His name was O'Malley and he had a

Cadillac 8, and after the war he had married

him

a French wife who

got lonesome when he took her to Union City, New Jersey-and we

don't have to be French to be thatl-and so he had brought her back

to France, Cadillac and all. And why the hell did I spend

dollars

a day to Franco-Belgique tours for a motor car when I could hire his

for 9 or less. Certainly, why? . . . Well, O'Malley not only had a

Cadillac 8 and a French wife, but he knew all

of the current crop

of Tiller girls living in their dormitory with a matron and chaperones

and all, over

Montmartre. But unless they had been misbehaving

and were under censure, they were all allowed nights out until

midnight, so we started at the end of the line and went along, count–

ing off from right to left; and what dancing partners; what grand

fun they were! Well, one afternoon we and O'Malley and our current

assignment of Tiller were out at Versailles absorbing French history,

then toward evening we stopped at a big sort of a chateau turned into

a restaurant-hotel not too far from the great Palace, for a little liquid

nourishment. And while we were waiting they brought us a bowl of

big red ripe cherries in cracked ice, and O'Malley had an idea. "I

know," he said, holding up a cherry pit, "I'll

invent

a drink."

Now a gentleman from Union City, New Jersey, who had a French

wife and a Cadillac 8, in Paris, and who hired out to Franco-Belgique

tours yet also hired out for less to us, was shock enough for any one

stay in Paris; but one who further invented drinks, made us slightly

dizzy. "Of course. Sure.

Invent

one," we added with

all

the conviction

we feel when we see cinemas of Senators kissing babies.

"Celeste's old man

work~

at the Florida. Her old man invents

dr~nks

too. We invent drinks together," he explained. Celeste was O'Malley's

wife, of course. "We invent swell drinks."

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