Page:The Diothas, or, A far look ahead (IA diothasorfarlook01macn).pdf/52

 signal, a member of the household receives at the gate the dinner-case, ingeniously contrived for carrying, without loss of heat, the enclosed meal. Of each dish we order only a carefully estimated amount. This is partly from dislike of waste, but still more in order to avoid the constant tendency to excess in the use of rich foods. This we specially avoid, though permitting the appetite more freedom in the use of such things as bread, fruit, etc."

To return to the dinner, the last course comprised fruits, especially strawberries of delicious flavor. Grapes. were always present,—a fruit that their science enables them to keep in perfection throughout the year.

The meal, enjoyed with much deliberation, was eulivened by such conversation as might be expected among people of cultivation and high breeding. Their manners, though simple and unaffected, were yet controlled by a well-defined system of etiquette, if I may so term it, which I found universally prevalent. "Etiquette is to true politeness," said their proverb, "what the rind is to the fruit." In putting into practice the principle contained in this saying, they were careful to avoid extremes. On the one hand, the rind was not made too heavy and unelastic for the purpose it was intended to subserve; yet just as the envelopes of some fruits are in themselves beautiful, so they invested many acts of their ceremonial politeness with a grace that would not willingly be spared.

It was not customary, I remarked, for children to address their elders at table unless in reply. At the same time, it was equally incumbent on the elders not to overlook the children, but to draw them into conversation by