midday
But they are all charmingly peaceful , and when at the noon hour they overflow with conversation , still there is a prevailing sense of quiet , finely qualified by the feminine invention and influence . Mere men are allowed to frequent these places , not only under the protection of women , but also quite unchaperoned , and when one sees them gently sipping their Souchong or Oolong , and respectfully munching their toasted muffins or their chicken-pie , one remembers with tender gratitude how recently they would have stood crooking their elbows at deleterious bars , and visiting the bowls of cheese and shredded fish and crackers to which their drink freed them , while it enslaved them to the witchery of those lurid ladies contributed by art to the evil attractions of such places : you see nowhere else ladies depicted with so little on , except in the Paris salon . The New York tea-rooms are not yet nearly so frequent as in London , but I think they are on the average cosier , and on the whole I can not say that they are dearer . They really cheapen the midday meal to many who would otherwise make it at hotels and restaurants , and , so far as they contribute to the spread of the afternoon-tea habit , they actually lessen the cost of living : many guests can now be fobbed off with tea who must once have been asked to lunch . '' `` But , '' we suggested , `` is n't that cheapness at the cost of shabbiness , which no one can really afford ? '' `` No , I do n't think so . Whatever lightens hospitality of its cumbrousness makes for civilization , which is really more compatible with a refined frugality than with an unbridled luxury .