Explore "The Girl from Malta" by Fergus Hume on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Business being concluded, as a natural thing, pleasure followed, and having had luncheon with Foster at "The Excelsior," a club much frequented by rising young men, Ronald took leave of the barrister, and went off to his hotel, -- there to attire himself for an afternoon call.
It might have been the fashion in the past for lovers to become exceedingly negligent in their dress, and pass their time in writing amatory odes to Chloe and Lydia, not daring to name openly the object of their affections, but now-a-days this is all changed. Strephon puts on his smartest suit, wears his brightest smile, and shows Chloe plainly that he adores her. Instead of wasting his time in writing poetry, he gets Chloe tickets for the theatre, takes her presents of flowers and music, and, on the whole, conducts himself in a matter-of-fact-fashion. So Master Ronald, adopting the modern manner of love-making, dressed himself carefully, placed a flower in his coat, and went off in a hansom cab, to call on Miss Cotoner. He also got a box at one of the theatres and not knowing his divinity's taste in theatricals, judged it by his own, and decided she would like to go to the Frivolity Theatre, at which the sacred lamp of burlesque was burning.