VII

A REPAST DRESSED AND SERVED IN THE NEW STYLE

We stop for the night at an inn of high standing and partake of a repast dressed and served in the new style.

THE TRAVELLER. Albert selected the place where we were to lodge that night. It was he said, famed far and near for the excellence of service and more particularly for dining rooms that prepared and presented dishes in The New Style. This course of action fell on my ears with anticipation, wondering if the establishment could match the dinner I had eaten during the evening before my arrival in Herttach.

On our arrival I could not but be impressed by the splendour of the building, formerly the country house owned by a titled landowner, poise and good-breeding could be sensed in every stone. Wonderful were the surrounding gardens. Green lawns ambled down towards the ornamental lake, the placid water disturbed only by the glide of swans amongst the lilies that dotted its margins and the rising of fat golden carp. Trees clipped and shaped in a hundred strange and surprising ways stood at ordered intervals along the edges of gravel strewn paths. Legions of seasonal flowers displayed the known colours of the spectrum. The interior of the house was furnished with many objects of beauty and craftsmanship. Venerable tables, cabinets, consoles. Fine chairs. Carpets whose weave told tales of sand and nomads. The owner of the mansion and all these treasures an old friend of Albert, hailing from the time they studied to obtain a higher degrees, greeted us with no small ceremony and after some minutes exchange of pleasantries directed an attendant to lead us up to the chambers we each were to occupy that night. On reaching my room and being shown through the door, the servant informed me a gong would sound at eight o’clock to announce the commencement of dinner and went on to request in a most civil manner that punctuality of attendance was expected from all guests. I thanked him warmly as he quit my presence. This being a cool time of year in the early evening, a fire blazed in the grate of the vast fire-dogged hearth. Picking up the poker I prodded the burning logs, an action that always seems to engender satisfaction, then taking advantage of this time of comfort and possible reflection, I quickly changed into more suitable formal attire and sat by the fender well-pleased and passed my time profitably enough bringing the entries in my journal up to date.

When I opened my valise to take clean linen, idly I weighed the closed bag of Herttach Coin in the grip of my hand. Curiously it felt lighter than the last time I had carried out this exercise. This could not be, and I concluded fatigue was the reason for this erroneous impression.

I dozed contentedly for some little while and was brought sharply from out of my reverie when the dinner-gong downstairs was firmly struck. Albert, passing along the corridor, knocked n the door of my chamber and joining him we descended together, thence to take our seats in the dining-room. Thirty people of fashion and distinction were the assembled company, arranged around tables, in twos, fours and sixes. Fine white napery covered each board. Elegant china, glasses and silverware placed with great regard to symmetry lay before each diner. Sober suited attendants awaited the orders of their principal, who on seeing that all were seated clapped white gloved hands to signal for the proceedings commence. In an instant the attendants moved as one into the kitchens to fetch the first course where on their return to the room six musicians bearing long golden trumpets stepped from the shadows.

The first course was placed before us, one servant attending two diners. The trumpeters raised their instruments to their lips and amidst the ensuing fanfare, the covers were lifted with a flourish from off the plates. Lying on the platter before me arranged with delicacy and consummate artistry, was one small carrot, two green beans, and three leaves of the globe known as artichoke. Gasps of appreciation fluttered about the room, the company raising knives and forks to dissect this portrait-miniature in vegetables with proper regard to reverence and unbridled appreciation. Meanwhile other attendants busied themselves pouring a small measure of white wine into the first of the crystal glasses. Ten minutes were allowed for the consumption of this first course. Plates were cleared and the second dish placed before us, the covers again being removed in unison with the trumpet fanfare. One fish, silvery and minute, lay bathing in a pool of green-sauce, a single sprig of chervil providing decoration. This time the gasps of appreciation were even more acute and I wondered for an instant if my fellow diners were about to clap their hands in rapt applause. Before I could commence my ministrations on this small example of the fruit-of-the-deep, my own attendant leaned across with a nod of pardon and instantly removed its head and backbone with a fork and spoon and a practiced turn of the wrist. Albert leaned over towards me and whispered that such skill takes at least two years to master and was a speciality of the establishment. The fish, which I then separated into even smaller portions before eating, tasted well enough, though I found some difficulty in making the dish last for the fifteen minutes allocated for consuming it.

These first two courses partaken of, the company relaxed a little, giving an impression that it had passed some examination of acceptance into a favoured and exclusive order. Noting well the approving eye of The Head Attendant as he surveyed his domain, most of the company bowed their heads towards him, a favoured few even being rewarded with an almost imperceptible signal of recognition in return. Fifteen minutes passed by and a sorbet flavoured with berries was placed before us to sooth the organs of digestion against the richness of what had come before.

Precisely on the minute of nine hours plus thirty the main dish of the evening was carried in, placed, and covers removed, providing an occasion for even more fantastical trumpet harmonics and harmonies. Before me a single chop of lamb, the meat separated from the bone except for the merest threat of pink flesh, occupied the centre of a vast platter, a puddle of red-brown sauce to one side of it a leaf of salad to the other. No meat ever tasted more savoury, the very diminutiveness of the viand lending a fleeting, mystical quality, to the brief instant it touched my palate. This delight was accompanied by a small goblet of red wine.

When the board was cleared at the conclusion to this point in our repast, audible sighs of content could be heard from around the room, soon followed by the final dish, a small pyramid of red-fruits pointing upwards from a puddle of green coulis, this dish seemingly more than sufficient to satisfy the appetites and expectations of my fellow guests, who conversed quietly over the dishes of coffee that brought the meal to an end, this final act of culinary drama punctuated by a concluding fanfare of trumpets that signalled the musicians withdrawal from the dining room.

After some verbal intercourse with the guests sitting at an adjacent table, the lightness of which I shall not record, Albert and myself retired to our respective chambers. I awoke just beyond the hour of two disturbed by the ticking of the clock, and what I took to be thunder, only to discover it to be the protests of my empty stomach.