ROMANO HOSPITALITY 



had brought Charhe up with a college education, but 

 he was very wild and up to all sorts of pranks and he 

 had some escapade with a race-horse of his own in the 

 college grounds. Eventually he took to racing with 

 the capital of about a dollar and ran into money, own- 

 ing some good horses in his time, one, Africander, 

 being quite first class and winning plenty of races. 

 When in England he was always very level-headed, and 

 would gamble on favourites, whereas Grannan always 

 liked horses with a price against them. Charlie had 

 wonderful nerve and ability for his age. 



Another who was betting pretty freely was Charlie 

 Quin. He had a handsome and most gentlemanly 

 appearance, being all the time most popular, but he was 

 somewhat reserved and he kept his own counsel. All 

 three of them lived at the Savoy or the Cecil, and there 

 were great gatherings on occasions, but one would 

 seldom follow the lead of another in racing, adopting 

 his own views before anything. Of course I saw 

 something of them but not a great deal. We all 

 kept not exactly aloof but distinct, for they were not 

 following me in particular but working out their own 

 ideas. 



Recalling those times at the Cecil I made a little 

 error in saying that I was never entertained — at 

 " parties " I mean. I remember that the late Mr 

 Romano showed hospitality to me by keeping his 

 lights up long after the time they should by regulation 

 have been turned out, and, with a party of friends who 

 are all living and whose names are well known in 

 certain circles, had a little game of Nap for my amuse- 

 ment. I said I had never played it, but Romano said 

 that was ridiculous and that anyone with my intelli- 

 gence and with the card mind could pick it up in five 

 minutes if he watched it. Well, I did watch it and 



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