A spoon is necessary with pines, melons, and very juicy strawberries, after they have been prepared with the knife and fork.

Nuts.

Nuts are cracked with the nut-crackers, and then extracted by the fingers. With filberts and Brazil nuts the knife and fork are called into requisition in order to free them from skin, but walnuts are too intricate for anything less wonderful in mechanism than the human hand. In view of this, they are sometimes prepared before being sent to table, and of late years they have been sold ready cracked and peeled for this purpose.

Almonds.

Almonds are never sent to table in their shells, so that they present no difficulties to the novice. At dessert they are usually accompanied by raisins, which, like the almonds, are carried to the mouth in the fingers.

Crystallised fruits.

Crystallised fruits are cut with the knife and fork, unless they happen to be of a small size, such as cherries. In that case they are eaten whole, being carried to the lips on the fork.

Liqueurs.

Liqueurs are handed round at dessert, poured out ready into the small glasses that are called after them. There is generally a choice, such as “Chartreuse or Bénèdictine, sir?” to which it is unnecessary to reply, “Both, please,” as a historic young man did once.

Passing the wines.

The servants often leave the dining-room when the dessert is placed on the table, and when this is so, the wine is passed round from hand to hand, each gentleman attending first to the lady he has escorted and then helping himself before passing on the decanter, claret jug, or champagne bottle. The good old fashion of using silver decanter-stands has long disappeared, to the detriment of many a good tablecloth. So has the genial and hospitable fashion of drinking wine with one’s guests, and they with each other. But this may be rather a good thing in the interests of temperance.

The water-drinker not singular.

Apropos to this subject, I may remark that there is now nothing singular in drinking nothing but water. The days are gone when a man was thought a milksop because he could not “drink his bottle,” or if he refused wine or spirits. Should any young man prefer water, he asks for it when the servants offer him wine. He is then offered Apollinaris or distilled water or sodawater, or some other preparation of filtered and distilled water, and may choose some of these in preference to plain water.

“One wine” diners.

Cigars and cigarettes.

Claret is the favourite dessert wine of the day, but port is still seen at some tables, and it is usual to offer champagne, as many prefer to drink only one kind of wine throughout the meal, from start to finish. In fact, this is becoming quite a fashion in some sets. The host provides cigars and cigarettes for his guests, and it would not be necessary or advisable to produce one’s own supply.

When the ladies leave the dining-room.