England -- Social life and customs -- 20th century -- Fiction; English fiction -- 20th century; Short stories, English
Dinner in the large room at the back (entrance gained by way of the
kitchen) is a good, sufficient meal, to which it is only necessary to
bring the appetite to be gained by wandering in the woods, or a brisk
ride in tramcars from the sea. Framed paintings on the wall, and
paintings on the wall with no frames, some a trifle obscured by age, and
possessing the signatures of men no longer youthful. Four tables up and
down the room; the table on the right reserved for a set of young women
who, at the beginning of the evening meal, talk so persistently of the
contributions they have made during the day to the art of England and
America, that one’s French neighbour, with serviette tucked in at throat,
can, I fear, scarcely hear himself eat his soup.
“Most awfully pleased with what I’ve done to-day. If the light hadn’t
begun to go off—”
“I’m like that, too. Sometimes I simply can’t do anything, and then,
another time—”
“My dear, the model was too comic for words. Talking all the time. If
I’d only understood what he was saying, I could write a book about him,
and that’s a fact!”
“Absolutely in love with the place. Could stay here for a whole week,
only I must be getting along.”
The serving of the meal has a touch of over-emphasis that sometimes
startles those who possess nerves; after a while, one becomes accustomed
to the method of banging each dish on the table with a clatter. It is no
exaggeration, but the mere truth to say that, a request being made for
more bread, a chunk is cut from the yard-long loaves and thrown at the
diner; with practice, a certain dexterity can be gained, especially by
those expert in the cricket-field. Five courses to the meal, and now and
again between two, a considerable interval, whilst the Zwinger family and
its dependents have a row in the kitchen, the guests sitting back
patiently until the last word is uttered. The nice question of allotting
this last word is not easy to decide, for when the rumbling bass of
Zwinger has fired what appears to be a parting shot, and the girls return
to the dining-room with plates, and guests pull chairs forward, one of
the young women may think of another argument, and the two go back to the
kitchen, where the dispute recommences. The quarrel finally at an end,
the Zwinger ladies come in, scarlet as a result of animated discussion,
and they serve the next course with more than usual truculence. Boarders
go outside to take their coffee and to smoke, eyed narrowly, as they pass
through, by Zwinger, to be joined at tables on the pavement by wonderful
youths in corduroy suits, which suggest that they are either artists with
a definite aim in life, or porters belonging to the railway of the North.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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