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| We come to it freshly, in the dewy youth of the day, and when our spiritual and sensual elements are in better accord than at a later period, so that the material delights of the morning meal are capable of being fully enjoyed, without any very grievous reproaches, whether gastric or conscientious, for yielding even a trifle overmuch to the animal department of our nature. The thoughts, too, that run around the ring of familiar guests, have a piquancy and mirthfulness, and oftentimes a vivid truth, which more rarely find their way into the elaborate intercourse of dinner. | Мы садимся за стол со свежими силами и мыслями. |
| Hepzibah's small and ancient table, supported on its slender and graceful legs, and covered with a cloth of the richest damask, looked worthy to be the scene and center of one of the cheerfullest of parties. The vapour of the broiled fish arose like incense from the shrine of a barbarian idol, while the fragrance of the Mocha might have gratified the nostrils of a tutelary Lar, or whatever power has scope over a modern breakfast table. Phoebe's Indian cakes were the sweetest offering of all-in their hue befitting the rustic altars of the innocent and golden age-or, so brightly yellow were they, resembling some of the bread which was changed to glistening gold, when Midas tried to eat it. The butter must not be forgotten-butter which Phoebe herself had churned, in her own rural home, and brought it to her cousin as a propitiatory gift-smelling of clover-blossoms, and diffusing the charm of pastoral scenery through the dark-panelled parlour. All this, with the quaint gorgeousness of the old China cups and saucers, and the crested spoons, and a silver cream-jug (Hepzibah's only other article of plate, and shaped like the rudest porringer), set out a board at which the stateliest of old Colonel Pyncheon's guests need not have scorned to take his place. But the Puritan's face scowled down out of the picture, as if nothing on the table pleased his appetite. | Так и старинный столик Гепзибы, покрытый роскошной скатертью, достоин был являться центром самого веселого кружка. |
| By way of contributing what grace she could, Phoebe gathered some roses and a few other flowers, possessing either scent or beauty, and arranged them in a glass pitcher, which, having long long ago lost its handle, was so much the fitter for a flower-vase. | Фиби отправилась в сад, собрала красивый букет роз и поставила его в небольшую стеклянную кружку, которая давно потеряла свою ручку и потому могла заменять собой вазу. |