Coffee

La Chartreuse de Parme, [2.28.495]. Seven or eight individuals of this kind turned up every evening at seven o’clock in the Marquise Crescenzi’s drawing room. Hardly had they seated themselves than a footman magnificently dressed in a pale yellow livery, entirely covered in silver braid –as was the red waistcoat which put the final touch to his magnificence– approached and took the poor devils’ hats and canes. Immediately behind him came a manservant bearing an absolutely minute cup of coffeee in a silver filigree holder; and every half-hour a butler wearing a sword and a magnificent coat in the French style brought round ices.