These
agents have observed you with a closeness of scrutiny of which
you are doubtless entirely unaware. They have even informed me
that, owing doubtless to your extreme interest in your new
surroundings, you have not as yet supped. Knowing this, and that
you must now be enjoying a very hearty appetite, I have to ask
you if you will do me the extreme favor of sitting at table with
me at a repast which you will doubtless be surprised to learn has
been hastily prepared entirely in your honor."
So saying, and giving Jonathan no time for reply, she offered him
her hand, and with the most polite insistence conducted him into
an exquisitely appointed dining room adjoining.
Here stood a table covered with a snow-white cloth, and
embellished with silver and crystal ornaments of every
description. Having seated herself and having indicated to
Jonathan to take the chair opposite to her, the two were
presently served with a repast such as our hero had not thought
could have existed out of the pages of certain extraordinary
Oriental tales which one time had fallen to his lot to read.
This supper (which in itself might successfully have tempted the
taste of a Sybarite) was further enhanced by several wines and
cordials which, filling the room with the aroma of the sunlit
grapes from which they had been expressed, stimulated the
appetite, which without them needed no such spur.
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