112 STRAY- AW AYS 



to be polite, but partook of that national dejection 

 that daily was more apparent to us. There was no 

 dejection, however, about the dinner-party in the 

 aggregate, and no doubt about the Danes being good 

 talkers ; every tongue was going, and every face 

 looked bright ; the pointed moustache of my cousin's 

 companion was twitching in the assiduity of his con- 

 versation, and she herself was evidently saying 

 " Vrahnent ! " with a gesture whose Parisian abandon 

 had yet in it some unconscious touch of the Skib- 

 bereen apple- woman. Dinner progressed slowly in 

 nearly the English rotation, but with flavours of far 

 more than English subtlety, and with slight yet 

 curiously noticeable differences of detail. The knives 

 and forks were massed at the right-hand side of the 

 plate, the glasses were ranged opposite to us on its 

 inner side ; between and with the courses we ate new 

 and delicious jams with a spoon from a little plate 

 moored throughout near the glasses, and the veget- 

 ables and sauces were passed on from hand to hand 

 by the guests themselves. All, except ourselves, cut 

 up their food at the beginning of affairs; then, dis- 

 carding the knife, picked their way through it with 

 a fork, and with a leisurely neatness that deprived 

 the act of eating of much of its inherent savagery. 



It was over at last, and there remained only the 

 feeling that I had eaten too much and not talked 

 enough, when every one rose, pushed their chairs in, 

 and began to shake hands with each other, saying 

 something that sounded like " well bekommen.'^ 

 We hoarsely murmured some similar sound as guest 

 after guest shook us by the hand, but what it was that 

 others replied to the salutation of our hostess we 

 could not discern, and could only gasp and grin when 

 our turn came. It was afterwards explained that 

 the mysterious sentence was " Tak for Maal,'' a 



