Adventure and adventurers > Hudson Bay, or, Everyday life in the wilds of North America

AT THE DINNER.
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indistinct. The ceaseless din of plates, glasses, knives,
forks, and tongues was tremendous; and this, together
with the novelty of the scene, the heat of the room, and
excellence of the viands, tended to render me oblivious
of much that took place. Almost all the faces present
were strange to me. Who were, and who were not, the
gentlemen of the committee, was to me matter of the
most perfect indifference; and as no one took the
trouble to address me in particular, I confined myself
to the interesting occupation of trying to make sense of
a conversation held by upwards of fifty pairs of lungs
at one and the same time. Nothing intelligible, how¬
ever, was to be heard, except when a sudden lull in the
noise gave a bald-headed old gentleman near the head
of the table an opportunity of drinking the health of a
red-faced old gentleman near the foot, upon whom he
bestowed an amount of flattery perfectly bewildering;
and after making the unfortunate red-faced gentleman
writhe for half an hour in a fever of modesty, sat down
amid thunders of applause. Whether the applause, by
the way, was intended for the speaker or the speakee, I
do not know; but being quite indifferent, I clapped my
hands with the rest. The red-faced gentleman, now
purple with excitement, then rose, and during a solemn
silence delivered himself of a speech, to the effect that
the day then passing was certainly the happiest in his
mortal career, that he could not find words adequately
to express the varied feelings which swelled his throb¬
bing bosom, and that he felt quite faint with the mighty
load of honour just thrown upon his delighted shoulders
by his bald-headed friend. The red-faced gentleman
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