At noon, then,[38] as he was about to enter on the subject of the morning's tourney, he had first to hold a prayer-tourney. I mean this: "prayers" do not, in Nürnberg and Kuhschnappel, mean a certain hereditary office and service of mass in a court chapel, but--the ringing of the twelve o'clock bell. Now the dining-table of our couple stood against the wall, and was not put in the middle of the floor except for meals. Well, Siebenkæs never succeeded above twice during his married life in having this table brought forward BEFORE the soup came in (for if a woman ONCE forgets a thing, she goes on forgetting it a thousand times running[39]), though he preached his lungs as dry as a fox's (which are used for curing ours); both soup and table were always moved together, after the soup came in, without the spilling of a greater quantity of the latter than one might have used in swallowing a pill. To-day this was the case as usual. Siebenkæs slowly chewed the pill which he swallowed with the soup. The delay in moving the table he observed anxiously (as if it had been a delay in the arrival of an equinox), with a long face and slow breathing, and when the soup-libation was duly poured as usual, he broke out as follows, in a calm tone of voice, however-- "The fact is, Lenette, we are on board a good ship. At sea, you know, people spill their soup because their vessel rolls and pitches--and ours is spilt for a similar reason. See here, the dinner-table and the morning besom are both in a tale together; they are two conspirators who will blow out your husband's candle--to use a strong expression--before they have done."