89/108 In every house, too (to show how nothing ever changes), the towels are folded in the same peculiar way. In every grate in the kingdom the coal fire is laid in precisely the same way. There is not a salesman in any shop on Piccadilly who does not, in the season, wear a long-tail coat. Everywhere they say a second grace at dinner--not at the end--but before the dessert, because two hundred years ago they dared not wait longer lest the parson be under the table: the grace is said to-day _before_ dessert! I tried three months to persuade my "Boots" to leave off blacking the soles of my shoes under the instep. |