A short pause, and they sunk again. Now appeared, as a central figure,
an odalisque. In each ivory hand she bore a double fan of exquisite
workmanship, on each of which again glistened a delicate and fairy
banquet. Here were ultimate quintessences--pines reduced to a drop of
honeyed delight; bananas whose life lay in points of bewildering
sweetness; enormous steamboat puddings compressed within the compass of
a thimble, exclusive of the sauce; chocolates, oceans of which lay in
mimic lakes, each of which the bill of a humming-bird might expand;
tongues of most melodious singing birds--the nightingale, the thrush,
and the goldfinch; lambs _en supreme_, each eliminated of earthly
particles, and spiritualized in scarcely tangible results. Over all
hovered the memories of exquisite beverages, which became realities when
you approached, and stole over the sense with insidious deliciousness.
These, too, faded away amid the disregard of their owner, though the
odalisque shed floods of tears of disappointment; and others succeeded,
but they tempted Roseton vainly, and a glance at the clock showed that
it was now ten o'clock by New Haven time. At this moment the Rev. George
Langford experienced another biological sensation; Roseton had conceived
a breakfast.
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