Sinister House by Fred M. White — Read

It was getting late before Joe Musgrave's little party turned out of the Metrodrome and made their way as far as the dance club which the host had selected as an appropriate spot with which to wind up the evening. It had not been a successful birthday party, and Joe, on his part, would be glad enough to see the end of it. As far as he was concerned, he had not the least desire to go on to the Aphrodite, which had been a concession to Pamela and that pose of hers of which he was getting heartily tired. Again, he knew perfectly well that Daphne's mother strongly objected to that sort of thing, and that if she ever found out how he had taken advantage of her absence from London, she would most certainly make things unpleasant for him. He glanced from time to time at the pearls round Daphne's neck and hoped that all might be well with them. Other girls at The Aphrodite were equally equipped with such costly ornaments, but there was always the risk of trouble, even in the very best appointed dance clubs in London. Joe made up his mind that the expiration of another hour would see him and his friends on their way home.

A clock somewhere was striking one as they entered the club. It was the last word in London's dancing halls, and a fine cosmopolitan crowd had gathered there. A good many of the dancers belonged to the same class as Joe and his party and, on the other hand, a great many of them didn't. But, for the moment, at any rate, The Aphrodite had a cachet of its own, which was denied to other resorts of the same calibre. A sporting peer with somewhat of a hectic past was supposed to be behind it, and for the moment at least he was mending his broken fortunes there. Anyway Society had smiled on The Aphrodite and was according it a pleasing measure of its golden favours. But exclusive it never could be, and there were many strange fish swimming in those tropical waters. This was a fact that did not waste itself on the argus eyes of the law whose extensive knowledge of the roseate past of the noble owner inclined to carefulness so far as that Haymarket establishment was concerned. Meanwhile the ball rolled merrily and London's capital gathered there o' nights with a leavening of the cosmopolitan element, a deal of which had come in contact with justice in her sterner moments.