Taking Lunch the Edinburgh Way

And now Aunt Georgina had helped them all to soup from a silver tureen. Georgie was sipping hers in what she knew to be the correct way, from the side of the spoon instead of from the tip as she did at home; and Joanna had nervously raised a glass of water to her lips, when she caught her aunt’s eye upon her.

“We don’t usually drink water before our soup, Joanna,” said Mrs Balmain quietly. “At least,” she added, “I don’t know how you do in Glasgow. In Edinburgh it is thought vulgar to drink immediately before food. Besides it is bad for the stomach.”

Joanna crimsoned and put down her glass untouched. Neither her mother’s kind, grieved glance nor the message of sympathy sent across the table from Georgie’s eyes could salve her wound. She had not known any better than to drink water before food,
and now she sat disgraced before them all, particularly before Cousin Irene, for whom that very morning at breakfast she had conceived a violent admiration. Oh! why were she and her family not in keeping with the elegance around them.

Catherine Carswell (1879-1946)

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