children, let us begin, and for the present put out of our minds this
matter which has been troubling us."

He then motioned me to a seat at his own table, where I was pleased to
have a place since the lovely Yoletta was also there.

I am not particular about what I eat, as with me good digestion waits on
appetite, and so long as I get a bellyful--to use a good old English
word--I am satisfied. On this particular occasion, with or without a
pretty girl at the table, I could have consumed a haggis--that greatest
abomination ever invented by flesh-eating barbarians--I was so
desperately hungry. It was therefore a disappointment when nothing more
substantial than a plate of whitey-green, crisp-looking stuff resembling
endive, was placed before me by one of the picturesque handmaidens. It
was cold and somewhat bitter to the taste, but hunger compelled me to
eat it even to the last green leaf; then, when I began to wonder if it
would be right to ask for more, to my great relief other more succulent
dishes followed, composed of various vegetables. We also had some
pleasant drinks, made, I suppose, from the juices of fruits, but the
delicious alcoholic sting was not in them. We had fruits, too, of
unfamiliar flavors, and a confection of crushed nuts and honey.

We sat at table--or tables--a long time, and the meal was enlivened with
conversation; for all now appeared in a cheerful frame of mind,
notwithstanding the melancholy event which had occupied them during the
day. It was, in fact, a kind of supper, and the one great meal of the
day: the only other meals being a breakfast, and at noon a crust of
brown bread, a handful of dried fruit, and drink of milk.

At the conclusion of the repast, during which I had been too much