Sometimes they would give entertainments in honour of their dogs, when
all the animals of all the guests (there seemed to be a whole kennel of
them) would be dressed up in coats of silk and satin with pockets and
pocket-handkerchiefs, and then led downstairs to the drawing-room, where
Alma's wheezy spaniel and my husband's peevish terrier were supposed to
receive them.
Sometimes they would give "freak dinners," when the guests themselves
would be dressed up, the men in women's clothes, the women in men's, the
male imitating the piping treble of the female voices, and the female
the over-vowelled slang of the male, until, tiring of this foolishness,
they would end up by flinging the food at the pictures on the walls, the
usual pellet being softened bread and the favourite target the noses in
the family portraits, which, hit and covered with a sprawling mess,
looked so ridiculous as to provoke screams of laughter.
The talk at table was generally of horses and dogs, but sometimes it was
of love, courtship and marriage, including conjugal fidelity, which was
a favourite subject of ridicule, with both the women and the men.
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