OUR COUNTRY LIFE 



ers, the best story-tellers of all our acquaintances and 

 looked forward myself with real pleasure to that no- 

 table evening. Such a bubbling over of good spirits 

 as I anticipated, such a battle of repartee, such a scin- 

 tillating fire of bon mots! All / should have to do 

 would be to look pleasant and applaud at the right mo- 

 ment. I could not help noticing that as each fresh 

 genius arrived, instead of the company becoming gayer, 

 a slight chill fell upon the room, but I thought, It is 

 probably the awkward quarter of an hour before din- 

 ner; once at the table all will go well. But alas! all 

 went much worse. An atmosphere of vague distrust, 

 almost of antagonism, seemed to prevail. Nobody 

 wanted to be audience; if one ventured a story, the 

 others, full of their own anecdotes, gave but slight at- 

 tention, were restive for their turn and crumbled their 

 bread nervously or said, "Very good, very good," in 

 a hurried sort of way. After several interruptions and 

 polite excuses, all conversation resolved itself into a 

 monologue of the person with the loudest voice and the 

 most persistence. As a dinner it was a total failure. 



292 



