Excerpt from The Coeruleans: A Vacation EdyllMr. Chichele, who, at the moment when this story opens, guided the fortunes of Coerulea, was as fond of society as his subjects, but, perhaps, more discriminating in his sociability. He was sometimes condemned as inhospitable by dull people, in whom, with the kindest intentions, he found it impossible to take an interest, and by pretentious ones, to whom his laboured polite ness betrayed a lurking touch of sarcasm. Such per sons he, no doubt, banished, as often as o¿icial etiquette would allow, from banquets at which it was his hobby to collect all that Coerulea could produce of the best ingredients of agreeable society. For the experience of life had convinced Chichele - by this time middle-aged and philosophic - that an official day ought to be ended by a good dinner, and that good dinners are most en joyed and best digested when partaken of in the com pany of agreeable and intelligent women. If they were beautiful, to boot, the effect was still more complete. Soothed by such pleasant in¿uences, Chichele's nature.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.