wife says. The man is a professor at one of the universities, odd in character and eccentric in his habits; his clothes most often show that they have not been sent to the presser's for a long while. The wife, by contrast, is a cheerful woman, of a certain intelligence, who spends her time writing books for children; her house appeared neglected, its things scattered here and there... She declared that she and her husband take their meals beside the fireplace, to the strains of music...

As for the one who prefers to have roast with baked potatoes, vegetables, and a lettuce-and-tomato salad, it shows that he is a conservative person, fond of formalities and of an orderly life.

Among the signs of conservatism in some people: one of them once sat down at a table and ordered roast with potatoes and peas. He ate the whole piece of meat before taking anything of the potatoes, then devoured all the potatoes before touching the peas...

The person who always boasts that

he eats everything is a person wholly turned toward others, a lover of society and ready to serve it. He is the one who lingers at the table to talk; he is that individual who is always asking for someone to go with him and share his food, or a glass of beer, or a cup of coffee.

As for the one who eats little, there is no doubt that he is nervous of temperament — his stomach cannot hold a large quantity of food — and he is, moreover, a man of much work and little patience in the course of his daily life.

And just as the inclination to food differs among individuals, it differs also between males and females... The restaurants that ladies frequent are rather like tea rooms, while the men's restaurants are like grand salons...

A woman most often prefers chicken with some vegetables, and the foods that keep her from stoutness, while men prefer the hefty dishes of meat.

Eating habits differ even among girls themselves. The working girl who labors by day while waiting for a suitable chance to marry prefers foods containing some spices and avoids heavy dishes... while the one who wants to cut her own path through life prefers the heavy foods.

As for why the girl about to be married prefers foods made mostly of milk — it is because in milk there is a symbol: the home, that safe place where she finds rest and care.

In most cases our taste in food changes as our ambitions change. There was a student at one of the schools who was given to the habit of taking light foods; when he moved on to the life of toil, he trained himself to take heavy dishes with some alcohol, so as to keep pace with his friends at work and not be a stranger to their ways.

A customer enters some restaurant and, after looking over the menu,

orders what is not on it, or asks the waiter in what year the wine was aged, and wears his hat on the back of his head... About such a person no two people disagree: he is a lover of show and of attracting notice.

And there are certain personalities, dry of temperament, who use food to express their drawing nearer to others, as did Jacob Malik, Russia's delegate at the United Nations, when he invited the members of the organization to a generous banquet after having been cold to them for a whole month; and the banquet was sumptuous to a degree that astonished the guests...

Among the difficult matters that face a newly married couple is the problem of food, for each of them may have grown accustomed to kinds of food different from what