about noon
Then you lead a pleasant , cheerful , do-nothing sort of life . You have your coffee in bed , where you can also read a novel in perfect comfort , for German beds have no curtains to intercept the morning light , or make a bonfire of the nocturnal student . You perform an elaborate toilet -LRB- are not Vienna gloves the only good fits in the world ? -RRB- , and you breakfast about noon in the _ salon _ of some luxurious hotel , where you may sit peradventure between an Austrian Field-Marshal , decorated with a dozen or so of orders , and a Polish beauty , who counts captives by the hundred , and breaks hearts by the score . Neither will think it necessary to avoid your neighbourhood as if you had confluent small-pox , and your eye as if you were a basilisk , simply because you have not had the advantage of their previous acquaintance . On the contrary , should the courtesies of the table or any chance occurrence lead you to hazard a remark , you will find the warrior mild and benevolent , the beauty frank and unaffected . Even should you wrap yourself up in your truly British reserve , they will salute you when they depart ; and people may say what they will about the humbug and insincerity of mere politeness , but there can be no doubt that such graceful amenities help to oil the wheels of life .