Two
people sitting at that large dining-table must talk very loud so as to
make themselves heard across those great slabs of mahogany covered with
damask. The butler and servants who attend at the table take a long time
walking round it. I picture to myself two persons of ordinary size
sitting in that great room at that great table, far apart, in neat
evening costume, sipping a little sherry, silent, genteel, and glum; and
think the great and wealthy are not always to be envied, and that there
may be more comfort and happiness in a snug parlour, where you are served
by a brisk little maid, than in a great dark, dreary dining-hall, where a
funereal major-domo and a couple of stealthy footmen minister to you
your mutton-chops. They come and lay the cloth presently, wide as the
main-sheet of some tall ammiral. A pile of newspapers and letters for the
master of the house; the Newcome Sentinel, old county paper, moderate
conservative, in which our worthy townsman and member is praised, his
benefactions are recorded, and his speeches given at full length; the
Newcome Independent, in which our precious member is weekly described as
a ninny, and informed almost every Thursday morning that he is a bloated
aristocrat, as he munches his dry toast.
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