sound judgment, and a well-balanced mind. Profound and continued silence they considered an attainment in itself. They scarcely realised, not being introspective, that two-thirds of the people who don’t speak are silent from lack of ideas.

As a matter of fact, in such a milieu, subjects for conversation of general interest were almost impossible to find. By tacit consent, politics and religion were tabooed, since the discussion of either invariably ended in a quarrel. Though the boarders read novels, they did not talk about them, and they took no great interest in literature or art. A man who was supposed to have written a book was 12rather cold-shouldered, for the Englishman—and in this case, as the preacher put it, man embraces woman—whatever his respect for literature in the abstract, thinks but meanly of those who produce it, if they do not happen to be celebrities. To be sure they are generally poor.

milieu

12

“Vill you beef, muddon, schiken, or feal?” whispered Müller, making his round when soup and fish had been removed.

“Veal, please,” said Miss Semaphore.

“Feal, blease,” said Müller under his breath, to impress the order on his mind.

“Vill you beef, muddon, schiken, or feal, Madame?”

“A portion—a tiny portion of the—a—chest of the fowl,” said Mrs. Whitley.

“Roast beef,” growled Mr. Lorimer, and Müller echoed “beef,” adding “blease” on his own account.

“I saw you to-day, Major Jones, but you did not see me,” said the younger Miss Semaphore archly, when the interest of choosing had subsided.

“You what?” asked Major Jones mildly. He was rather deaf.

“I said that I saw you to-day—down in the City, you know. Fancy! I went all 13that distance by myself in an omnibus! There is such a sweet shop for bargains in St. Paul’s Churchyard, and you passed me just as I turned in.”

13

“You should not go into the City unescorted,” said Miss Augusta Semaphore severely; “I have told you that over and over again, but you are so heedless. It is not comme il faut.”

comme il faut

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