[htoolkit-users] The room in a procession of one." A low laugh startled

[Comp <fa...@di...>]

 Indeed, judging from the proceedings of the gentlemen near me, I
surmised that there was no practical limit, except the appetite of the
guests and the capacity of the soup-tureens. Not being fond of this
civic dainty, I partook of it but once, and then only in accordance with
the wise maxim, always to taste a fruit, a wine, or a celebrated dish,
at its indigenous site; and the very fountain-head of turtle-soup, I
suppose, is in the Lord-Mayor's dinner-pot. It is one of those orthodox
customs which people follow for half a century without knowing why, to
drink a sip of rum-punch, in a very small tumbler, after the soup. It
was excellently well-brewed, and it seemed to me almost worth while to
sup the soup for the sake of sipping the punch. The rest of the dinner
was catalogued in a bill-of-fare printed on delicate white paper within
an arabesque border of green and gold. It looked very good, not only in
the English and French names of the numerous dishes, but also in the
positive reality of the dishes themselves, which were all set on the
table to be carved and distributed by the guests. This ancient and
honest method is attended with a good deal of trouble, and a lavish
effusion of gravy, yet by no means bestowed or dispensed in vain,
because you have thereby the absolute assurance of a banquet actually
before your eyes, instead of a shadowy promise in the bill-of-fare, and
such meagre fulfilment as a single guest can contrive to get upon his
individual plate. I wonder that Englishmen, who are fond of looking at
prize-oxen in the shape of butcher's-meat, do not generally better
estimate the aesthetic gormandism of devouring the whole dinner with
their eyesight, before proceeding to nibble the comparatively few
morsels which, after