The chicken was a chicken such as one dreams of.
The salads were delicious, the homemade bread and butter fresh and sweet; the ham might well cause feelings of a tender nature towards its curer! The chocolate cake?
He thought he might try a small piece and, having tried, was willing to make the attempt on a larger scale.

The boy was a most efficient waiter, discerning one's desires before they were expressed.

But when they got to the pie, the doctor drew up another chair at the pie side of the table and waved the waiter into it.
There was no false modesty about the boy; neither did he hold malice.

If he had felt slightly aggrieved at not having been invited earlier, he forgot it after the first mouthful and for a time there was no further conversation in number fourteen.

The doctor had temporarily discarded his theory that it is better to rise from the table feeling slightly hungry.