Chapter 1
“It must be acknowledged, however, that there is some good in life,” observed one of the guests, who, leaning his elbow on the arm of his chair with a marble back, sat nibbling a root of a sugar water-lily.
“And evil also,” added another, between two spells of coughing, having been nearly strangled by the prickles of the delicate fin of a shark.
“Let us be philosophers,” then said an older person, whose nose supported an enormous pair of spectacles with broad glasses affixed to wooden bows. “To-day one comes near strangling, and to-morrow every thing flows smoothly as the fragrant draughts of this nectar. This is life, after all.”
After these words, this easily pleased epicure swallowed a glass of excellent warm wine, whose light vapor was slowly escaping from a metal teapot.
