"The Secret Door"

{We continue with our fortnightly serial epic of the early years of the Beaten Generation. Please enjoy responsibly if at all…}They came to the end of the hall and to a door on which was painted in cursive gilt letters: W.C.Livingston pushed open the door and gestured for Harry to go first, and Harry did, entering a spacious lavatory of marble and granite, porcelain and dark wood, and at the head of a row of sinks to the left a tiny old Negro man in a white jacket sat on a stool reading a paperback book."Ah, Mr. Lovechild," said the little man, putting a bookmark into the book and rising."How's it hanging, Pompey?" "By a thread, sir, but who am I to complain, at my advanced age. It is a privilege of sorts still to be alive.""It is indeed, Pompey. By the way, this is my friend, Mr. Harry Beachcroft, the renowned author.""Extraordinary," said the little man. "As I just happened to be reading one of the gentleman's novels." He held up the book, which was Harry's Dames Spell Trouble, a…