He murmured more inarticulate remonstrances a moment later, when the grim old domestic appeared with plates, serviette, and tableware for his use, but she went on spreading them before him as if she heard nothing.

Thus committed against a decent show of resistance, the young minister did eat a little here and there of what was set before him, and was human enough to regret frankly that he could not eat more.

It seemed to him very remarkable cookery, transfiguring so simple a thing as a steak, for example, quite out of recognition, and investing the humble potato with a charm he had never dreamed of.

He wondered from time to time if it would be polite to ask how the potatoes were cooked, so that he might tell Alice.
The conversation at the table was not continuous, or even enlivened.
After the lapses into silence became marked, Theron began to suspect that his refusal to drink wine had annoyed them--the more so as he had drenched a large section of table-cloth in his efforts to manipulate a siphon instead.

He was greatly relieved, therefore, when Father Forbes explained in an incidental way that Dr.Ledsmar and he customarily ate their meals almost without a word.
"It's a philosophic fad of his," the priest went on smilingly, "and I have fallen in with it for the sake of a quiet life; so that when we do have company--that is to say, once in a blue moon--we display no manners to speak of." "I had always supposed--that is, I've always heard--that it was more healthful to talk at meals," said Theron.