The Hidden Tea-House Club is a clandestine establishment famed for its lush appointments and its intimate air. Beaded partitions afford privacy, the carpeting is vivid, and ornate weavings dress the walls; it keeps card tables and a backgammon board in constant play, and serves in the main a cosmopolitan custom of older men, with a few notable exceptions. It occupies a space that weds the manner of a tea-house to the business of gaming, and dwells in a realm of soft illegality.
Its air is one of patrons bent over their several games. Chique Manu, a figure of note in the gambling world, is bound up with the place. The room fosters a sense of fellowship and of rivalry amongst those who come to it, and tempers may rise in the course of play, breeding dramatic turns — confrontations without the club's doors amongst them.