I entered. Having paid my money at the bar, and given up my hat and
greatcoat, I was ushered by a black waiter, dressed in a striped jacket
and trousers, as if he had been ruled with red ink, into a large room,
where a very numerous company of both sexes were assembled, some seated,
some standing, but all talking away with buzz and confusion that showed
perfect intimacy to be the order of the day. The men, it was easy
to see, were chiefly in the "shipping interest." There was a strong
majority of mates and small skippers, whose varied tongues ranged from
Spanish and Portuguese to Dutch and Danish; French, English and Russian
were also heard in the _melee_, showing that the Grand Ordinary had a
world-made repute. The ladies were mostly young, very condescending in
their manners, somewhat overdressed, and for the most part French.

As I knew no one, I waited patiently to be directed where I should
sit, and was at last shown to a place between a very fat lady of creole
tint--another dip would have made her black--and a little brisk man,
whom I soon heard was Monsieur Palamede himself.

The dinner was good, the conversation easiest of the easy, taking in
all, from matters commercial to social,--the whole seasoned with the
greatest good-humor and no small share of smartness. Personal adventures
by land and sea,--many of the latter recounted by men who made no
scruple of confessing that they "dealt in ebony,"--the slave-trade.
Little incidents of life, that told much for the candor of the
recounter, were heard on all sides, until at length I really felt
ashamed of my own deficiency in not having even contributed an anecdote
for the benefit of the company. This preyed upon me the more as I saw
myself surrounded by persons who really, if their own unimpeachable
evidence was to be credited, began the world in ways and shapes the
most singular and uncommon. Not a man or woman of the party that had not
slipped into existence in some droll, quaint fashion of their own, so
that positively, and for the first time, I really grew ashamed to think
that I belonged to "decent people" who had not compromised me in the
slightest degree. "Voila un jeune homme qui ne dit pas un mot!" said
a pretty-looking woman, with fair brown hair and a very liquid pair of
blue eyes. The speech was addressed to me, and the whole table at once
turned their glances towards me.

"Ay, very true," said a short, stout little skipper, with an
unmistakable slash