The rector said grace, and the Marquis amen, and in less than two minutes every elbow was up, and every mouth at business.

There was very little talking for the first half hour.

In those days emptiness was not allowed to make the process of filling a misery.
While these fine fellows were still in the prime of their feeding, bent over and upon it, two men with empty stomachs, and a long way between them and their victuals, stood afar regarding them.

That is to say, just far enough to be quite out of sight from the windows, in the gloom of the December evening; but at the same time near enough, to their own unhappiness, to see and even smell the choice affairs across the road.
"For what, then, hast thou brought me here ?" the shorter man sharply asked the tall one, both being in an uncomfortable place in a hedge, and with briars that scratched them.

"Is it to see other people eat, when to eat myself is impossible?
You have promised to show me a very fine thing, and leagues have I traversed to please you.