uth was full of turkey.
"You HAVE got a chef, General!"

"He ought to cook well. I pay him more than most bank-presidents get.
What do you think of those joint wagons, Mrs. Presbury?"

"They're very--interesting," replied she, a little nervous because she
suspected they were some sort of vulgar joke.

"I knew you'd like them," said the general. "My own idea entirely. I
saw them in several restaurants abroad--only of course those they had
were just ordinary affairs, not fit to be introduced into a gentleman's
dining-room. But I took the idea and adapted it to my purposes--and
there you are!"

"Very original, old man," said Presbury, who had been drinking too
much. "I've never seen it before, and I don't think I ever shall
again. Got the idea patented?"

But Siddall in his soberest moment would have been slow to admit a
suspicion that any of the human race, which he regarded as on its knees
before him, was venturing to poke fun at him. Drunk as he now was, the
openest sarcasm would have been accepted as a compliment. After a
gorgeous dessert which nobody more than touched--a molded mousse of
whipped and frozen cream and strawberries--"specially sent on to me
from Florida and costing me a dollar apiece, I guess"--after this
costly wonder had disappeared fruit was served. General Siddall had
ready a long oration upon this course. He delivered it in a
disgustingly thick tone. The pineapple was an English hothouse product,
the grapes were grown by a costly process under glass in Belgium. As
for the peaches, Potin had sent those delicately blushing marvels, and
the charge for this would be "not less than a louis apiece, sir--a
louis d'or--which, as you no doubt know, is about four dollars of Uncle
Sam's money."

The coffee--"the Queen of Holland may have it on her PRIVATE
table--MAY, I say--but I doubt if anyone else in the world gets a smell
of it except me"--the coffee and the brandy came not a moment too soon.
Presbury was becoming stupefied with indigestion; his wife was nodding
and was wearing that vague, forced, pleasant smile which stands
propriety-guard over a mind asleep; Mildred Gower felt that her nerves
would endure no more; and the general was falling into a besotted
state, spilling his wine, mumbling his words. The coffee and the brandy
revived them all somewhat. Mildred, lifting her eyes, saw by way of a
mirrored section of the enormous sideboard the English butler surveying
master and guests wi