Page:The Diothas, or, A far look ahead (IA diothasorfarlook01macn).pdf/208

 existed about the same freedom in selecting a table as, among us, in choosing the group to which to become attached in a drawing-room. It was, in fact, a social occasion, on which those who had not met during the week found opportunity for accomplishing in a pleasant manner much of what is accomplished among us by the dreary intermediance of formal calls.

The dinner, for such it was, went on much as at home. Every thing needful had been placed by careful and practised hands in the cebin: nothing was wanting to a complete meal. It was strange and interesting to see that vast hall filled with animated groups of diners, and not a waiter to be seen. Occasionally one of the children would flit across the scene, carrying a message or inquiry from one table to another.

Music, too, was there, but not that of man's devising. By means of a suitable arrangement of the telephonic apparatus, the roar of Niagara was brought to our ears, just so much subdued in tone as to serve as a background to the conversation. It was difficult for me, at times, not to imagine myself once more at the Clifton House. with the wind setting from the Falls. On other occasions I have heard, instead of the voice of the cataract, the ceaseless surge of the storm-vexed billows against some rocky coast, of Maine perhaps, Alaska, or Norway; or, again, the multitudinous voices of some distant tropical forest, awakening into life beneath the morning sun, would be heard blended into a musical murmur.

The conversation at our table was that of men who were fully conversant with, and had bestowed earnest thought upon, the topics discussed. For the first time