292 NORWAY. 



and says (> ver so yoot,"}ie means you well, and hopes 

 will make yourself comfortable. 



But, to return to our dinner party. There was no 

 carving at this meal a circumstance worthy of con- 

 ideration and imitation. The dishes were handed round 

 by waiters. First of all we had sweet rice soup with 

 wine and raisins in it, the eating of which seemed to me 

 like the spoiling of one's dinner with a bad pudding. 

 This finished, the plates were removed. 



The silence had by this time began to impress me. 

 "Now," thought I, " surely some one will converse 

 with his neighbour during this interval." No ; not a lip 

 moved ! I glanced at my right and left hand men. I 

 thought for a moment of venturing out upon the un- 

 known deep of a foreign tongue, and cleared my throat ; 

 but every eye was on me in an instant, and the sound of 

 my own voice, even in that familiar process, was so 

 appalling that I subsided. I looked at the pretty girl 

 opposite me. I felt certain that the young fellow next 

 her was on the point of addressing her, but I was mis- 

 taken. Either he had forgotten what he meant to say, 

 or his thoughts were too big for utterance. I am still 

 under the impression that this youth would have broken 

 the ice had not the next course come on and claimed his 

 undivided attention. 



The second course began with a dish like bread pud- 

 ding, minus currants and raisins suggesting the idea 

 that these ameliorative elements had been put into the 

 Boup by mistake. It looked as if it were a sweet dish, 



