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The excerpt represents the core issue or deciding factor on which you must meditate, and is drawn from The Red Inn by Honore de Balzac: them as a manager marshals his supernumeraries at the back of the
stage. These are little gastronomic felicities which Brillat-Savarin,
otherwise so complete an author, overlooked in his book. The footmen
had disappeared. The dessert was like a squadron after a battle: all
the dishes were disabled, pillaged, damaged; several were wandering
around the table, in spite of the efforts of the mistress of the house
to keep them in their places. Some of the persons present were gazing
at pictures of Swiss scenery, symmetrically hung upon the gray-toned
walls of the dining-room. Not a single guest was bored; in fact, I
never yet knew a man who was sad during his digestion of a good
dinner. We like at such moments to remain in quietude, a species of
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