Book Description

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1907 edition. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER IV A DINNER PARTY The greatest luxury with which the Unaeans surrounded themselves in their dining-rooms and banquethalls was mirrors. From the exquisitely polished line surface of these mirrors on festal occasions came, obliquely reflected, the image of one participant to another, and the throbbing ingenuousness of the visa-vis conversations in which the Unaeans attained a conspicuous eminence spread itself like a delicate bouquet, spurring each by the reflected glimpses and half-heard tones of his neighbours to explore boldly the treasures his partner's conversation had for him. Cartwright cultivated the reputation of an ostentatious and omni-collective hospitality, for it enabled him to sound and test and understand so many diverse minds and take note of all the variant phases of Unaean opinions. It is therefore as good an occasion as any other for obtaining a glimpse of the manner and customs of Unaea if we observe the guests at one of Cartwright's banquets, the more so because with Laura's turn to seriousness, and the complaisance with which her lightest wishes were treated, we may succeed in eliciting something more than the graceful expression of elegant trifles from her companions. Let us take them at random, these men and women lapped in the arms of Unaean luxury, as they conversed with one another in this scene of light and flowers and radiant beauty. Sylvester Barr, making a low obeisance, handed Julia Castle to the seat opposite him, quoting from an old poem: "From the dying rose its soul has fled And blooms above, divinely red." "Why, my rose isn't a bit withered," said Julia, looking down at the flower in her corsage, pretending not to observe the allusion to the brilliant colouring of her complexion, in which...