He exerted himself by a desperate effort to be
conversable,--not very successfully, however; for had not Amelie
watched him with deepest sympathy and adroitly filled the breaks in
his remarks, he would have failed to pass himself creditably before
the Governor. As it was, Le Gardeur contented himself with
following the flow of conversation which welled up copiously from
the lips of the rest of the company.
After a while came in Felix Baudoin in his full livery, reserved for
special occasions, and announced to his lady that tea was served.
The gentlemen were invited to partake of what was then a novelty in
New France. The Bourgeois, in the course of the new traffic with
China that had lately sprung up in consequence of the discovery of
ginseng in New France, had imported some chests of tea, which the
Lady de Tilly, with instinctive perception of its utility, adopted
at once as the beverage of polite society. As yet, however, it was
only to be seen upon the tables of the refined and the affluent.
A fine service of porcelain of Chinese make adorned her table,
pleasing the fancy with its grotesque pictures,--then so new, now so
familiar to us all.
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