Read "Vile Bodies" by Evelyn Waugh online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
That evening Lady Metroland gave a party for Mrs. Melrose Ape. Adam found the telegram of invitation waiting for him on his return to Shepheard's. (Lottie had already used the prepaid reply to do some betting with. Someone had given her a tip for the November Handicap and she wanted to "make her little flutter" before she forgot the name.) He also found an invitation to luncheon from Simon Balcairn.
The food at Shepheard's tends to be mostly game-pie -- quite black inside and full of beaks and shot and inexplicable vertebrae -- so Adam was quite pleased to lunch with Simon Balcairn, though he knew there must be some slightly sinister motive behind this sudden hospitality.