Presently another dish was handed to him.

There was no changing of plates.

'They _needn't_,' Philip thought bitterly.

This time it was a fat goose, not carved, and now Philip saw that it was attached to its dish with glue.

Then he understood.
(You know the beautiful but uneatable feasts which are given you in a white cardboard box with blue binding and fine shavings to pack the dishes and keep them from breaking?
I myself, when I was little, had such a banquet in a box.