How much politeness and winning of the affections exist in small
courtesies, is well exemplified in the following anecdote related by a
lady of a gentleman who had been the politest man of his generation. On
returning once from school for the holidays, she had been put under his
charge for the journey. They stopped for the night at a Cornish inn.
Supper was ordered, and soon there appeared a dainty dish of woodcocks.
Her cavalier led her to the board with the air of a Grandison, and then
proceeded to place all the legs of the birds on her plate. At first,
with her school-girl prejudices in favour of wings and in disfavour of
legs and drumsticks, she felt rather angered at having these (as she
supposed) uninviting and least delicate parts imposed upon her; but in
after years, when gastronomic light had beamed on her, and the
experience of many suppers brought true appreciation, she did full
justice to the memory of the man who could sacrifice such _morceaux_ as
woodcocks’ thighs to the crude appetite of a girl, and who could thus
show his innate deference for womanhood even in such budding form.
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