The head waitress, busy as she
was, found time to come now and then to an open window near where I sat,
and talked to a male friend sitting outside in the dark: indeed, she
did more than talk, and people had to rattle their glasses very hard
before they could make her hear. From her I learned that this was a
marriage party which had arrived; and when I asked why they did not
dance, as the fiddles were engaged at that moment with unwonted
unanimity upon dance-music, she gave me to understand that these were
not people of Thorens, but only a party from another village, making the
evening promenade after the wedding: from which it would seem that it is
not the etiquette for people to dance under such circumstances, except
in the home village. They sat round a table, men and women alternately,
with their hats on, and with glasses before them. The bride and
bridegroom were accommodated with a bench to themselves at the head of
the table, he likewise with his hat on, and with a pipe in his mouth,
which, seeing that he was a demonstrative bridegroom, one might have
supposed to be an inconvenience.
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