of the food-regenerating editor's views upon diet, but quite
out-Heroding Herod in her practice, for her fare seems only to lag a
pace behind Nebuchadnezzar's in simplicity; and last a witty
_Americaine_, an art student at the South Kensington school, with whom
I fraternized directly, and from whom I had all the information my own
eyes didn't glean. A girl twenty-four or five years old, I fancy, and
oh, so satisfyingly handsome--not tall, but majestic in proportions and
pose: a beautifully shaped head whose outlines were only revealed by
closely-pinned braids of fine dark hair, and a face like a lily for
calm and purity--too pale, indeed, for brilliant health, but the faint
shadows under the eyes, about the temples and mouth that she owes to
months in dimly-lighted rooms are really most effective aids to her
peculiar beauty. She captivated me quite; Ronayne, too, who is a great
conquest, for usually he dislikes Americans, finding them, he says, so
shallow and yet so cockahoop. And the other guests at dinner were a
lady lecturer, American, too, young, decidedly pretty, but pert as a
pigeon, an Englishwoman who's doing something very notable in
reformatories and kindergartens, a Liberal M.P. dancing attendance on
the young lady lecturer, and a grand old white-headed lion of a man, a
famous literary M.D.--heterodox to a frightful degree, I'm told, but
certainly one of the most delightful neighbors I ever had at a dinner
table.

And a very enjoyable dinner-party it was, altogether: a simple but
carefully arranged menu, the dishes thoroughly well cooked--two or
three foreign touches, _maccaroni aux tomates_, American-trimmed
peaches with cream, and little fairy cakes--cat tongues--do you know
them?--and roasted almonds in Spanish fashion, and as good claret
Sauterne and sparkling Mosel (for I know a good glass of wine when I
get it) as one need wish for.

The food-regenerator and his wife and the blonde "healer" had seats
together, and were helped only to vegetables and fruits--the girl,
indeed, taking only unbolted bread, of which an enormous supply in the
shape of hard little cakes was placed before her, together with a large
vegetable-dish full of stewed prunes; and the two mountains of bread and
fruit had disappeared when the meal was ended--how many pounds I don't
know, but then dinner is her sole meal in the twenty-four hours.

"Did you see that young woman's dinner?" burst out my liege that night
when we were discu