Student Question
How did the lady react when only mutton chops were ordered in "The Luncheon"?
Quick answer:
When the narrator orders only a mutton chop in "The Luncheon," the lady reacts by telling him that it's unwise to eat meat. She goes on to say that she doesn't know how one can work after eating such heavy things. As for herself, she claims that she doesn't believe in overloading her stomach.
The writer chooses a mutton chop because it's the cheapest item on the menu. He's now reached the stage of his nightmare lunch date where he realizes that his companion is eating him out of pocket. So naturally he wants to spend as little money on himself as possible.
Remarkably, the lady reacts to his meager choice by lecturing him on the dangers of eating too much meat. According to her, chops are such heavy things, and she doesn't see how it's possible to do any work after eating heavy things. For good measure, she then goes on to say, in complete contradiction to all the available evidence, that she doesn't believe in overloading her stomach.
The lady is clearly not just greedy and hypocritical, but also completely lacking in basic self-awareness. She's eating this poor young writer out of pocket yet continues to insist that she hardly ever eats...
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or drinks anything for lunch. She even has the audacity to lecture the writer about the heaviness of his humble mutton chop despite gorging herself on all the rich delicacies on the menu. She might well happily chat away on art, literature, and music, but her main focus is on having a slap-up meal at a swanky restaurant at someone else's expense.
How did the lady react when the narrator ordered only mutton chops in "The Luncheon"?
The writer only orders this supposedly heavy thing because it's the cheapest item on the menu. His lunch guest has been guzzling her way through the most expensive items on the menu, leaving him in serious danger of severe financial embarrassment. The way things are going he'll have no money left to pay for this increasingly lavish lunch.
So the writer orders a mutton chop. The lady, however, has the audacity to give him a lecture about it. She tells him that it's an unwise choice; that she doesn't know how you can expect to work after eating such "heavy things." Even more outrageously, she claims that she doesn't believe in overloading her stomach.
Clearly, that just isn't true. For overloading her stomach is precisely what the lady's been doing ever since she sat down to luncheon with the writer. This is obviously a woman who doesn't practice what she preaches. Not content with feeding her face, she's now hypocritically giving the writer advice on what he should or shouldn't eat.
The lady's inability to follow her own advice will have serious consequences for her figure later on in life. Twenty years after their nightmare lunch appointment, the writer notes with complacency that his former lunch-guest now weighs 133 kilograms.