The Knack of Flying
By Shelley Adina
London, March 1896
The betting book at the Gaius Club was one of its most successful innovations. So successful that from time to time even Lewis Protheroe, the club’s secret owner, perused its pages to marvel over the latest madness.
The Hon. Cyril Whitworth wagers £100 that he will win back every penny he has lost to Mr. Edmund Ffoulkes by Easter.
Mr. Thomas Ware wagers £500 that Lady Julia Mount-Batting will kiss him at the Penningtons’ Masked Ball.
Lewis had closed the book, shaking his head. Both men would lose, and painfully.
But of late, the entries had taken on a new character, as though a craze were blowing through London like a hot wind that affected only the younger, moneyed set. A craze so secret that it had not even reached the scand
