[From the reservation and table-plan book at Café Solange, 9 Laurel Street, the Heights. Amélie's hand. A green cloth-bound book, hand-ruled, 150 pages. Selected representative days.]
Tuesday, 25 July 1922 — evening.
| Table | Party | Notes (Amélie's) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 (window) | McCausland (T.), Pellman (S.), Dannemeyer (K.) | their weekly; discussing the Clarion strike piece pub. today; all three stayed past midnight; bill on Dannemeyer's Clarion account, he insists. |
| 3 | Kamiński (J.), Vasko (S.), Kowalski (H.) | first time the three together; Vasko intense; Kamiński quiet. |
| 5 | Harriet Westbrook, a woman from Smith (?) | her first visit since April; asked about the "morning paper conversations" table. |
| 6 | Ingersoll (Prof.), Cargill (E.) | coffee only; discussing a séance photograph. |
| 7 | single man, unfamiliar, in a gray summer suit | came in at 9, left at 9:45 without ordering; said he had been looking for Prendergast; I asked who; he left; I write this down. |
| 2 | Dr. Linden (D.) | on his own; coffee and a brandy; stayed an hour reading a book; did not speak. |
Sunday, 1 October 1922 — midday.
| Table | Party | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 4 | Pellman, Ostermann | lunch; Ostermann left at 2:15 with a folded envelope from her — I saw it pass; she watched him leave. |
| 8 (back) | Cadenza (Matteo), a woman I did not recognize | Matteo drinking more than his usual; woman listening with her chin on her hand; I believe she was Amelia Boudreau, a widow from Montreal staying at the Ward for two weeks. |
| 1 | McCausland (T.), his mother (Maeve) | her first visit to the café; he wanted her to see where he took his meetings; she looked around, said it was "very French"; he smiled. |
Thursday, 18 October 1923 — lunchtime, day after Jarzembek Clarion piece ran.
| Table | Party | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | McCausland, Kamiński | J.K.'s first proper sit-down at the café; McC. introduced him to everyone present; the Heights coffee-table regulars came by to shake his hand. |
| 3 | Ostermann, alone | thinking; stayed two hours; did not order a second coffee; left with his notebook out in his hand, which is unusual for him. |
| 6 | Hargrave-Thwaite, Cargill, another woman (also Heights, not regular) | discussing a donation to the Library's "Blane/Elspeth effects" accession; I was asked to refill water three times; they were there for two hours. |
| 2 | Westbrook (P.), alone | his second visit in a month; two whiskies; left looking tired; tipped generously; did not engage the room. |
[At the back of the book, on the inside cover, in Amélie's hand:]
"What is this book? It is a book of who sits with whom at my tables. It is not a gossip book. I do not write it to betray anyone. I write it because when Corine Harriss comes to me once a month for supper and asks who has been in the room, I like to have told her the precise answer. Corine pays me in return for the answer — sometimes in small sums that I do not require and will not here record. More often she pays in the small favors that are the only currency my café and her newspaper have between them.
Each of my regulars knows, I believe, that I keep this book. None of them has ever asked to see a page of it. None ever will. The day one of them asks is the day I burn the book in the stove behind the kitchen. That day has not come in thirteen years. — A.S."