United States or Nigeria ? Vote for the TOP Country of the Week !
In the awful pauses of the banquet, and the hall-door being furthermore open, we had the benefit of hearing: The cook, and the occasional cook, below stairs, exchanging rapid phrases regarding the dinner; The smash of the soup-tureen, and swift descent of the kitchen-maid and soup-ladle down the stairs to the lower regions.
"'You did not know I was there, said I, with a knowing wink at one of them as I passed. "'Assurement non, said the fellow with a laugh, that was the signal for all the others to join in it. 'Is the table d'hote over? said I, regardless of the mirth around me. 'Monsieur is just in time, said the waiter, who happened to pass with a soup-tureen in his hand.
"To-night?" said the curate, as if with anxiety. "If there is any change, and I think there is, it seems to me more apparent to-night than it was when I saw you the other day." Ellen, the maid, entered the room bearing a tray on which was a soup-tureen. "Oh, dinner!" said Chichester. "Let us sit down. You won't mind simple fare, I hope. We are having soup, mutton, I am not sure what else."
In the same way, when dinner was ready in our sitting-room, the landlord always brought in the silver soup-tureen with his own hands, placed it ceremoniously before my father, and removed the cover with a great flourish; after which he retired, and left the rest to the waiter. This was another traditional attention. Towards the end of dinner it became my father's turn to repay these civilities.
It was a tortoise, fully as large as a soup-tureen. The sight of an animal in its "native wilds," which you have all your life been accustomed to see in zoological gardens, has something peculiar, almost absurd, in it. As it is with animals, so it is with other objects.
One might almost fancy that the steam arising from the portly soup-tureen assumed as it arose something suggesting a human form; that from its airy and fragrant mistiness a shadowy countenance beamed down upon the good lady in black, with the white cap, who ladled out the delicious compound to her waiting devotees.
Of one saloonkeeper it is related that, desiring a punch bowl and finding that the only vessel of the sort was a soup-tureen belonging to a large and expensive dinner set, he bought the whole set for the sake of the soup-tureen.
They watched him break a soup-tureen, and then the eldest boy, stepping out into the middle of the room, held up his arm, and the Member of Parliament, somewhat surprised, sat down on the dresser and listened. "Please, sir," said the eldest boy, "we're awfully sorry. It's awfully good of you, sir. But somehow we're not feeling in the mood for wild beasts this afternoon."
Ah, here comes dinner at last, and I am sure we shall all be glad of it." Choo Loo now entered with the soup-tureen, a startling vision to Imogen, who had never seen a Chinaman before in her life. "How very extraordinary!" she murmured in an aside to Lionel. "He looks like an absolute heathen. Are such things usual here?" "Very usual, I should say. Lots of them about.
There's Wanda coming to tell me dinner is ready. She just bumps the soup-tureen against my door as she carries it down the passage to the diningroom, and calls out briefly, "Essen." I'll finish this tonight. Bedtime. I just want to say goodnight, and tell you, in case you shouldn't have noticed it, how much your daughter loves you.
Word Of The Day