Page:Robert William Cole - The Struggle for Empire; A Story of the Year 2236 (1900).djvu/40

28 were well known in the scientific and military worlds, were assembled, besides several very fascinating ladies. A few moments later dinner was announced, and the guests paired off and proceeded to the dining-room, where a dinner awaited them such as would have provoked the envy of the most particular diner-out of the nineteenth century. There were fishes and meats that had been brought from places hundreds of millions of miles off, and which were served up by cooks who had grown gray in studying the intricacies of the culinary art. They were accompanied by the most exquisite wines and vegetables, and followed by fruits that had been culled from among the stars. Miniature fountains that stood on the tables threw up showers of scented liquids into the air, and the room was flooded by a subdued light that seemed to issue from ceiling, wall, and table.

The conversation was highly intellectual. The gray-haired scientists talked of nothing