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I learned to know some of the habitues quite well a white-haired old gentleman who always brought bread for the birds; they knew him perfectly and would flutter down to the Square as soon as he appeared a handsome young man with a tragic face, always alone, walking up and down muttering and talking to himself he may have been an aspirant for the Odeon or some of the theatres in the neighbourhood a lame man on crutches, a child walking beside him looking wistfully at the children playing about but not daring to leave her charge groups of students hurrying through the gardens on their way to the Sorbonne, their black leather serviettes under their arms couples always everywhere.
The missus, of course, had one of the china cups, and the guests enamel ware; and the flies hovering everywhere in dense clouds, saucers rested on the top of the cups by common consent. Bread, scones, and such thing were covered over with serviettes throughout all meals while hands were kept busy "shooing" flies out of prospective mouthfull.
Ardan slept badly, turning over and over between the serviettes that served him for sheets, and he was thinking of installing a more comfortable bed in his projectile when a violent noise startled him from his slumbers. Thundering blows shook his door. They seemed to be administered with an iron instrument. Shouts were heard in this racket, rather too early to be agreeable.
Each time the insect returned a loud laugh burst out, and when the old man, annoyed by its tickling, murmured: "What a confoundly obstinate fly!" Jeanne and the vicomte laughed till they cried, holding their serviettes to their mouths to prevent themselves shrieking out loud. When the coffee had been served Jeanne said: "Suppose we go for a walk?"
Mariana lowered her eyes and dropped her hands at her sides. "But here comes Tatiana with our dinner," she exclaimed suddenly. "Isn't she a dear!" Tatiana appeared with the knives and forks, serviettes, plates and dishes. While laying the table she related all the news about the factory. "The master came from Moscow by rail and started running from floor to floor like a madman.
To the casual gaze they appeared complete strangers, and we had consumed many meals in their society before observing that whenever the tall Colonel had sucked the last cerise from his glass of eau-de-vie, and begun to fold his napkin a formidable task, for the serviettes fully deserved the designation later bestowed on them by the Boy, of "young table-cloths" the little Colonel made haste to fold his also.
To look for sense in a fellow of such equipment and such a history would be like looking for serviettes in a sailors' boarding-house. By the same token, the relatively greater intelligence of actresses is explained. They are, at their worst, quite as bad as the generality of actors.
Let me give some instances. We were having luncheon in the priests' refectory of the Franciscan Mission; and for the benefit of those who imagine that missionaries to the Indians are fat and bloated on three hundred a year, I should like to set down the fact that the refectory was in a sort of back kitchen, that we ate off a red table-cloth with soup served in a basin and bath towels extemporized into serviettes.
"What's going to be done?" asked everybody, as they folded their serviettes and left the table. That question was answered by Miss Giles, who beckoned to Ingred in the hall, and said briefly: "Ingred, will you fetch your hockey-stick and pads?" Ingred did not need telling twice. To take Rachel's place was indeed an honor. Such a chance did not come often.
The cloths that covered the tables and the serviettes, arranged fanwise in the drinking glasses, were literally as white as snow, and about a dozen knives and forks and spoons were laid for each person. Down the centre of the table glasses of delicious yellow custard and cut-glass dishes of glistening red and golden jelly alternated with vases of sweet-smelling flowers.
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