windy
streets to go to his home.

CHAPTER X

AT BLAFARD'S

There comes now and then to the surface of our modern civilisation one
of those great and good men who, unconscious, like all great and good
men, of the goodness and greatness of their work, leave behind a lasting
memorial of themselves before they go bankrupt.

It was so with the founder of the Stoics' Club.

He came to the surface in the year 187-, with nothing in the world but
his clothes and an idea. In a single year he had floated the Stoics'
Club, made ten thousand pounds, lost more, and gone down again.

The Stoics' Club lived after him by reason of the immortal beauty of his
idea. In 1891 it was a strong and corporate body, not perhaps quite so
exclusive as it had been, but, on the whole, as smart and aristocratic
as any club in London, with the exception of that one or two into which
nobody ever got. The idea with which its founder had underpinned the
edifice was, like all great ideas, simple, permanent, and perfect--so
simple, permanent, and perfect that it seemed amazing no one had ever
thought of it before. It was embodied in No. 1 of the members' rules:

"No member of this club shall have any occupation whatsoever."

Hence the name of a club renowned throughout London for the excellence
of its wines and cuisine.

Its situation was in Piccadilly, fronting the Green Park, and through
the many windows of its ground-floor smoking-room the public were
privileged to see at all hours of the day numbers of Stoics in various
attitudes reading the daily papers or gazing out of the window.

Some of them who did not direct companies, grow fruit, or own yachts,
wrote a book, or took an interest in a theatre. The greater part eked
out existence by racing horses, hunting foxes, and shooting birds.
Individuals among them, however, had been known to play the piano, and
take up the Roman Catholic religion. Many explored the same spots of
the Continent year after year at stated seasons. Some belonged to the
Yeomanry; others called themselves barristers; once in a way one painted
a picture or devoted himself to good works. They were, in fact, of
all sorts and temperaments, but their common characteristic was an
independent income, often so settled by Providence that they could not
in any way get rid of it.

But though the principle of no occupation overruled all class
distinctions, the Stoics were mainly derived from the landed gentry.
An instinct