I never eat anything for luncheon

In Somerset Maugham's story 'The Luncheon', the writer meets a woman at a play, and it reminds him of a lunch they had twenty years before, when he was a poor, young writer living in Paris.

She had written to praise his book, and had asked him to take her to lunch at Foyot's, a restaurant far too expensive for him.

He was flattered by her praise, and too young to know how to say no. So he agreed, although he had only a little money to live on for the whole month.

At the restaurant, she says she never eats more than one thing for lunch. Then she orders salmon and caviare, both very costly. He orders the cheapest dish on the menu, a mutton chop.

She drinks only champagne, she says, 'on doctor's orders'. He says that his doctor has forbidden him to drink champagne, and drinks water.

With every order, his heart sinks further.