Wearing a uniform of such
dignity and conscious that he was on the threshold of his career, he was
trying very hard to make good and hoping very fervently that he would
get through without any drops or splashes to impair the freshness of his
new and wonderful attire.
The party of young men, who had been at a very illustrious English
school together and now were either at a university or in the world,
were celebrating an annual event and were very merry about it. For the
most part they had, between the past and the present, as many topics of
conversation as were needed, but now and then came a lull, during which
some of them would look around at the other tables, note the prettier of
the girls or the odder of the men and comment upon them; and it chanced
that in such a pause one of the diners happened for the first time to
notice with any attention the assiduous young waiter. Although not old
enough to have given any thought to the anomaly of youth (though lowly)
attending upon youth (though gilded) at its meals in this way--not old
enough indeed to have pondered at all upon the relations of Capital and
Labour or of the domineering and the servile--he had reflected a good
deal upon the cut and fit of clothes, and there was something about the
waiting-boy's evening coat that outraged his critical sense.
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