. From the log of the Velsa. ers had the austerityof priests presiding at a rite. Their silent coimte-nances said impassively: This is the most selectresort in our great and historic country. It hasbeen frequented by the flower of Danish aristoc-racy, art, and letters for a thousand years. It hasnot changed. It never will. No upstart cos-mopolitanism can enter here. Submit in hushed tones. Conform to all the nice-ties of our ceremonial, for we have consented toreceive you. In brief, it was rather like an English bank, ora historic hotel in an English cathedral town,though its
. From the log of the Velsa. ers had the austerityof priests presiding at a rite. Their silent coimte-nances said impassively: This is the most selectresort in our great and historic country. It hasbeen frequented by the flower of Danish aristoc-racy, art, and letters for a thousand years. It hasnot changed. It never will. No upstart cos-mopolitanism can enter here. Submit in hushed tones. Conform to all the nice-ties of our ceremonial, for we have consented toreceive you. In brief, it was rather like an English bank, ora historic hotel in an English cathedral town,though its food was better, I admit. The menuwas in strict Danish. We understood naught ofit, but it had the air of a saga. At the close ofthe repast, the waiter told us that, for the prix fixe,we had the choice between cake and cheese. I said,Will you let me have a look at the cake, and thenI 11 decide. He replied that he could not; thatthe cake could not be produced unless it wasdefinitively ordered. The strange thing was that he 176. ^^ A SKIPPER ON A BICYCLE CAFES AND RESTAURANTS persisted in this attitude. Cake never had beenshown on approval at the Wiener Cafe of the HotelKing of Denmark, and it never would be. I bowedthe head before an august tradition, and orderedcheese. The Wiener Cafe ought to open a branchin London; it was the most English affair I haveever encountered out of England. Indeed, Copenhagen is often exquisitely Eng-lish. That very night we chose the restaurant of the Hotel for dinner. The room was darkly gorgeous, silent, and nearly full. We were curtlyshown to an empty table, and a menu was flung atus. The head waiter and three inefficient underwaiters then totally ignored us and our signals forfifteen minutes; they had their habitues to the end of fifteen minutes we softly and apolo-getically rose and departed, without causing anyapparent regret save perhaps to the hat-and-coatboy, whom we basely omitted to tip. We roved in the wet, busy Sunday streets,s
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