The Mentor. Ayres Alfred
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Название: The Mentor
Автор: Ayres Alfred
Издательство: Public Domain
Жанр: Зарубежная классика
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Tea, coffee, chocolate and the like are drunk from the cup and never from the saucer. Put your spoon in the saucer should you send your cup to be refilled; otherwise, it may be left in the cup. Never blow your tea or coffee; if it is too hot to be drunk, wait till it cools.
In handling glasses, keep your fingers a goodly distance from the top, but do not go to the other extreme; and if you handle a goblet or a wine-glass, take hold of the stem only. Take hold of the bowl just above the stem.
In helping yourself to butter, take at once as much as you think you shall require, and try to leave the roll in as good shape as you find it. In returning the knife, do not stick it into the roll, but lay it on the side of the plate.
In masticating your food, keep your mouth shut; otherwise you will make a noise that will be very offensive to those around you.
Don’t eat in a mincing, dainty manner, as though you had no appetite, nor devour your food as though you were famishing. Eat as though you relished your food, but not as though you were afraid you would not get enough.
Don’t attempt to talk with a full mouth. One thing at a time is as much as any man can do well.
Few men talk well when they do nothing else, and few men chew their food well when they have nothing else to do.
Partake sparingly of delicacies, which are generally served in small quantities, and decline them if offered a second time.
Should you find a worm or an insect in your salad or in a plate of fruit, hand your plate to a waiter, without comment, and he will bring you another.
See that the lady that you escorted to the table is well helped. Anticipate her wants, if possible.
Never tip your chair, nor lounge back in it, nor put your thumbs in the arm holes of your waistcoat.
Never hitch up your sleeves, as some men have the habit of doing, as though you were going to make mud pies.
If the conversation tends to be general – and it should tend to be general at a small dinner-party – take good heed that you, at least, listen, which is the only sure way I know of for every man to appear to advantage.
Never, under any circumstances, no matter where you are, cry out “Waiter!” No man of any breeding ever does it. Wait till you can catch the attendant’s eye, and by a nod bring him to you.
Unless you are asked to do so, never select any particular part of a dish; but if you are asked choose promptly, though you may have no preference.
If a dish is distasteful to you decline it, and without comment.
Never put bones or the pits of fruit on the table-cloth. Put them on the side of your plate.
Always wipe your mouth before drinking, in order that you may not grease the brim of your glass with your lips.
Taking wine with people and the drinking of toasts at private dinners are no longer the fashion. Every one drinks much or little or none at all as he chooses, without attracting attention.
If, however, you should find yourself at a table where the old custom is observed, you will not invite your host to take wine with you; it is his privilege to invite you.
If you are invited to drink with an acquaintance, and you do not drink wine, bow, raise your glass of water, and drink with him. If you do drink wine, take the same sort as that selected by the person you drink with.
It is considered ill bred to empty your glass on these occasions or to drink a full glass of wine at a draught on any occasion.
While on the subject of wine-drinking, it may not be amiss to observe that in England it is considered inelegant to say “port wine” or “sherry wine.” In England they always say “port” or “sherry.” On the other hand, no well-bred Frenchman ever speaks of wines in any other way than as “Vin de Champagne,” “Vin de Bordeaux,” and so on. Thus we see that what is the wrong thing to do in one country is the right thing to do in another.
Do not offer a lady wine till she has finished her soup.
Do not hesitate to take the last piece on a dish or the last glass of wine in a decanter simply because it is the last. To do so is to indirectly express the fear that you would exhaust the supply.
Avoid picking your teeth at the table if possible; but if pick them you must, do it, if you can, when you are not observed. “There is one continental custom,” says the London Queen, “which the true-born Briton holds in holy horror – that is, the use of those convenient little lengths of wood which to every foreigner are as necessary to his comfort as a napkin for his mouth or water for his fingers. We English regard the use of the toothpick as a barbarism, a horror, an indecency, and would not take one of those clean wooden spills between our lips for all the world. Nevertheless, a great many of us who would shudder at the iniquity of a toothpick, thrust our fingers into our mouths and free our back teeth with these natural ‘cure-dents,’ which gives a singularly wolfish and awful appearance to the operator, and makes the onlooker regret the insular prejudice which will not rather use the universal continental toothpick, wherein, at least, if properly and delicately done, is no kind of indecency or disgust.”
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