ived at what is called an _impasse_ in
French." He looked up at the clock on the wall, and she gave a little
jump in her chair. "Oh, there's plenty of time. The taxi won't be here
for half an hour yet. Is there any heat left in that coffee?"

"There will be," she said, and she lighted the lamp under the pot.
"But I don't like being scared out of half a year's growth."

"I'm sorry. I won't look at the clock any more; I don't care if we're
left. Where were we? Oh, I remember--the objection to dining itself.
If we could have the forms without the facts, dining would be all
right. Our superstition is that we can't be gay without gorging; that
society can't be run without meat and drink. But don't you remember
when we first went to Italy there was no supper at Italian houses
where we thought it such a favor to be asked?"

"I remember that the young Italian swells wouldn't go to the American
and English houses where they weren't sure of supper. They didn't
give supper at the Italian houses because they couldn't afford it."

"I know that. I believe they do, now. But--

'Sweet are the uses of adversity,'

and the fasting made for beauty then more than the feasting does now.
It was a lovelier sight to see the guests of those Italian houses
conversing together without the grossness of feeding or being fed--the
sort of thing one saw at our houses when people went out to supper."

"I wonder," Lindora said, "whether the same sort of thing goes on at
evening parties still--it's so long since I've been at one. It was
awful standing jammed up in a corner or behind a door and eating
_vis-a-vis_ with a man who brought you a plate; and it wasn't much
better when you sat down and he stood over you gabbling and gobbling,
with his plate in one hand and his fork in the other. I was always
afraid of his dropping things into my lap; and the sight of his jaws
champing as you looked up at them from below!"

"Yes, ridiculous. But there was an element of the grotesque in a
bird's-eye view of a lady making shots at her mouth with a spoon and
trying to smile and look _spirituelle_ between the shots."

Lindora as she laughed bowed her forehead on the back of her hand in
the way Florindo thought so pretty when they were both young. "Yes,"
she said, "awful, awful! Why _should_ people want to flock together
when they feed? Do you suppose it's a survival of the primitive
hospitality when those who had something to eat hurried to share i