much. He was for making two conditions, viz., there were to be no
speeches until after the meal; and no one was to speak before having
drunk sufficiently to feel the power of the wine - or else he was to be
in that condition in which one says much which under other circumstances
one would leave unsaid - without necessarily having the connection of
speech and thought constantly interrupted by hiccoughs. Before speaking,
then, each one was to declare solemnly that he was in that condition. No
definite quantity of wine was specified, capacities differed so widely.
Against this proposal, John entered protest. He could never become
intoxicated, he averred, and when he had come to a certain point he grew
the soberer the more he drank. . . .
.. . . As to the contents of the speeches, Constantine proposed that they
should deal with love, that is, the relation between man and woman. No
love stories were to be told though they might furnish the text of one's
remarks.
The conditions were accepted. All reasonable and just demands a host may
make on his guests were fulfilled: they ate and drank, and "drank and
were filled with drink," as the Bible has it; that is, they drank
stoutly.
The desert was served. Even if Victor had not, as yet, had his desire
gratified to hear the splashing of a fountain - which, for that matter,
he had luckily forgotten since that former conversation - now champagne
flowed profusely. The clock struck twelve. Ther
.
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