th us, he thought it necessary to extenuate the
length of time he kept the dinner on the table, by declaring that he
had taken a very long walk in the morning, and came in fasting; but
as that excuse could not serve above once or twice at most, he has
latterly dropped the mask altogether, and chosen to appear in his own
proper colors, without reserve or apology.

You cannot imagine how unpleasant his conduct has become. His way of
staring at the dishes as they are brought in, has absolutely
something immodest in it: it is like the stare of an impudent man of
fashion at a fine woman, when she first comes into a room. I am
positively in pain for the dishes, and cannot help thinking they have
consciousness, and will be put out of countenance, he treats them so
like what they are not.

Then again he makes no scruple of keeping a joint of meat on the
table, after the cheese and fruit are brought in, till he has what he
calls _done with it_. Now how awkward this looks, where there are
ladies, you may judge, Mr. Reflector,--how it disturbs the order and
comfort of a meal. And yet I always make a point of helping him
first, contrary to all good manners,--before any of my female friends
are helped, that he may avoid this very error. I wish he would eat
before he comes out.

What makes his proceedings more particularly offensive at our house
is, that my husband, though out of common politeness he is obliged to
set dishes of animal food before his visitors, yet himself and his
whole family (myself included) feed entirely on vegetables. We have a
theory, that animal food is neither wholesome nor natural to man; and
even vegetables we refuse to eat until they have undergone the
operation of fire, in consideration of those numberless little living
creatures which the glass helps us to detect in every fibre of the
plant or root before it be dressed. On the same theory we boil our
water, which is our only drink, before we suffer it to come to table.
Our children are perfect little Pythagoreans: it would do you good to
see them in their nursery, stuffing their dried fruits, figs,
raisins, and _milk_, which is the only approach to animal food which
is allowed. They have no notion how the substance of a creature that
ever had life can become food for another creature. A beefsteak is an
absurdity to them; a mutton-chop, a solecism in terms; a cutlet, a
word absolutely without any meaning; a butcher is nonsense, except so
far as it is t