for the first few minutes anyone glancing down the long tables would have seen what we always see on such occasions : the placid faces of bons viveurs whom food and wine had placed in a contentment which no amount of speeches could violate , the patient faces of diners who had learned how to pursue their own thoughts while attending just enough to respond wherever a laugh or a rumble of assent was obligatory , the fidgety faces of young men unappreciative of port and hungry for tobacco , the over-elaborate attention on the powdered faces of women who knew their duty to society .