It must be a
hardy appetite which can contemplate without a momentary discouragement
the battered egg-shell, the fish half stripped to a skeleton, the
crumbs in the plate, and the dregs in the cup. There is surely a wise
submission to those weaknesses in human nature which must be respected
and not reproved, in the sympathizing rapidity with which servants in
places of public refreshment clear away all signs of the customer in
the past, from the eyes of the customer in the present. Although his
predecessor may have been the wife of his bosom or the child of his
loins, no man can find himself confronted at table by the traces of a
vanished eater, without a passing sense of injury in connection with the
idea of his own meal.
Some such impression as this found its way into the mind of Mr. Noel
Vanstone when he entered the lonely breakfast-parlor at Baliol Cottage
shortly after eleven o'clock. He looked at the table with a frown, and
rang the bell with an expression of disgust.
"Clear away this mess," he said, when the servant appeared. "Has your
mistress gone?"
"Yes, sir--nearly an hour ago."
"Is Louisa downstairs?"
"Yes, sir."
"When you have put the table right, send Louisa up to me.
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