appeared to him difficult and disagreeable ceremonies. He did not
perceive that custom had rendered all these things perfectly easy to
every one else in company; and as soon as he had devoured his food his
own way, he moralized in silence upon the good sense of Sancho Panza, who
preferred eating an egg behind the door to feasting in public; and he
recollected his favourite traveller Le Vaillant's[1] enthusiastic
account of his charming Hottentot dinners, and of the disgust that he
afterwards felt, on the comparison of European etiquette and African
_simplicity_.

[Footnote 1: Le Vaillant's Travels in Africa, vol. i. p. 114.]

"Thank God, the ceremony of dinner is over," said Forester to Henry
Campbell, as soon as they rose from table.

All these things, which seemed mere matter of course in society, appeared
to Forester strange ceremonies. In the evening there were cards for those
who liked cards, and there was conversation for those who liked
conversation. Forester liked neither; he preferred playing with a cat;
and he sat all night apart from the company in a corner of a sofa. He
took it for granted that the conversation could not be worth his
attention, because he heard Lady Catherine Mackenzie's voice amongst
others; he had conceived a dislike, or rather a contempt for this lady,
because she showed much of the pride of birth and rank in her manners.
Henry Campbell did not think it necessary to punish himself for her
ladyship's faults, by withdrawing from entertaining conversation; he knew
that his father had the art of managing the frivolous subjects started in
general company, so as to make them lead to amusement and instruction;
and this Forester would probably have discovered this evening, had he not
followed his own thoughts, instead of listening to the observations of