ally very much otherwise--but from a modest wish to give
the least possible trouble; chicken and jelly being stock dishes that
are quite certain to be at hand in every supper-room. No, he is far more
likely to please by asking to have the matter left in his hands, and
thereupon going off to the buffet, to return with a small but varied
collection of three or four samples, each on a separate plate, of the
most novel and attractive of the culinary triumphs there displayed, for
her to choose from. Which duty done, and some champagne and
seltzer-water deftly mixed, he will with a light heart take possession
of his reserved chair, and fall to upon one or other of the unchosen
samples and the most thoroughly zestful chat of the evening.

Behooves it to say a word or two of the materials of the typical
ball-supper? There is a family likeness about those turned out by
Gunter that the experience of one season is enough to make one
recognize. And, on the whole, the Gunterian supper is as good, in its
way, as; need be. Nothing hot, of course, except oyster soup (specially
adapted for deserving chaperons), and, maybe, some delicately browned
cutlets; but cold meats of every shade of substantiality, from boars'
heads and chickens and raised pies to the most delicate of sandwiches,
tempting translucent aspics, in which larks, lobsters, prawns, fillets
of sole, and such-like lie "imbedded and injellied," and ethereal
plovers' eggs. Of sweets the multitude and variety is almost infinite;
and indeed the possible combinations of things creamy and jammy and
gelatinous are tolerably well known all over the world. Among them fresh
strawberries combined with plain iced cream may be mentioned as holding
a high place in general favor. As to the drinkables, sherry and claret
are always at hand, but the almost universal beverage is a mixture of,
say, two thirds of champagne to one of seltzer-water. The idea of this
mixture is, no doubt, partly to get rid of that excess of fixed air
which is apt to make undiluted champagne a rather uncomfortable material
for a draught; but the custom is mainly the result of sad experience of
the unwisdom of doing otherwise, owing (it must be admitted) to the
badness of the so-called champagne only too commonly dispensed at ball
suppers. How the man who wouldn't dream of giving his guests a glass of
inferior wine at his dinner-table comes to think nothing of poisoning
them with the cheap rubbish that audaciously fl