"The lovely blue sapphires glowed upon the white bosom of the endive. "A white-labelled bottle, capsuled Yquem, and the cork branded 'Lur Saluces,' was served with the salad. You note the subtle aroma of pineapple and fragrance of flower ottos with the detonation of the cork--the grand vintages of Yquem have a pronounced _Ananassa_ flavour and bouquet that steeps the palate with its richness and scents the surrounding atmosphere. "Now try your blue-violet salad. "Is it fragrant? is it cool? is it delicious? is it divine?" The deep-golden, marrowy Yquem, _crême_, of 1861 and 1864 is now alas! unobtainable; and even were it to be procured, it must ere this have parted with much of its marvellous bouquet and _sève_. But the violet yet sheds its colour and distils its perfume for the gathering. Other vintages, too, have been pressed and have mellowed along the classic banks of the Ciron and the Rhein, that may worthily accentuate the violet and endive as the crown of the repast. [Illustration] [Illustration] SWEETS TO THE SWEET _Jam jam efficaci do manus scientiæ._[61] HORACE. Epode xvii. 1. However scholiasts may have interpreted Horace's line,--and by no two is it interpreted alike,--the repetition or intensification of the first word in connection with the thought that follows must certainly carry conviction to the gastronomer that no mere stress upon a common adverb was intended, but rather a definite allusion to some particular object. The more the sentence is analysed, the greater seems the emphasis laid upon the power of sweets to attract and charm. Apart, moreover, from the iteration of the subject extolled, one is impressed by the force of the expression "_do manus_," which means here, not, as one would suspect, to shake hands; but "I yield," "I surrender," "I throw up my hands"--the strongest form of complete capitulation. And when it is further considered that one who was so careful in his advice and hygienic precepts, as well as so dainty in epithet (_curiosa felicitas_), has expressed his love for an _entremets sucré_ in such emphatic terms, it should be conceded that woman is justified in her predilection for the final course of the dinner, which man is apt to decry. The question of dessert, indeed, is only another instance of where a man thinks he knows, but a woman knows better. [Illustration: "APRÈS BON VIN" From the engraving by Eisen in Fermiers-Généreaux edition of the "Contes et Nouvelles" (1762)]