For my own part I was not tempted to such a breach of decorum; the
fare provided by Signor Paparazzo suited me well enough, and the
wine of the country was so good that it would have covered many
defects of cookery. Of my fellow-guests in the spacious dining-room
I can recall only two. They were military men of a certain age,
grizzled officers, who walked rather stiffly and seated themselves
with circumspection. Evidently old friends, they always dined at the
same time, entering one a few minutes after the other; but by some
freak of habit they took places at different tables, so that the
conversation which they kept up all through the meal had to be
carried on by an exchange of shouts. Nothing whatever prevented them
from being near each other; the room never contained more than half
a dozen persons; yet thus they sat, evening after evening, many
yards apart, straining their voices to be mutually audible. Me they
delighted; to the other guests, more familiar with them and their
talk, they must have been a serious nuisance. But I should have
liked to see the civilian who dared to manifest his disapproval of
these fine old warriors.
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