What is the
consequence? You can taste his self-imposed asceticism in the very
ZABBAGLIONE, for which I must really apologize! It speaks to the eye,
but not to the heart. Let us hope the coffee will be more harmonious."
"Would you not include some of our American dishes in your bill of
fare?"
"To be sure I would; a fine selection. I have most pleasant
recollections of the cuisine of Baltimore."
"You can get all those things in New York."
"No doubt; no doubt. But one thing invariably distresses me in
transatlantic dinners: the unseemly haste in rising. One might really
think the company were ashamed of so natural and jovial a function as
that to which a dining-room is consecrated. And then, have you not
noticed that, sitting at table, a certain intellectual tone, an
atmosphere of a definite kind, is insensibly generated among the
guests, whatever the subject of conversation may be? They are often
quite unaware of its existence, but it hangs none the less about the
room and binds the inmates together for the time being.
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