Although the atmosphere had become tense enough to draw swords, they still sat down together for breakfast. Throughout the meal, the Agent kept observing everyone.
Oddly enough, Aunt Kane did not eat like someone who had fallen into poverty. Though she looked somewhat aged, dressed plainly, and spoke rather crudely, certain subtle gestures revealed that she was less like a girl from a small town and more like a wealthy young lady from a big city.
Kate had clearly noticed this too, because she was also from a wealthy family. She was Batman's cousin; her mother and Batman's mother, Martha, both came from the Kane Family, which had once been one of Gotham's Four Great Families. Habits ingrained through etiquette training from childhood were difficult to change.
For instance, when Kate and Aunt Kane drank soup, they scooped outward, moving their spoons from themselves toward the opposite side, rather than scooping inward from the outside as many people did.
It was said that this rule came from medieval aristocratic banquets and might have originated in Spain. No one could verify why it was done that way. Some speculated that it was to keep the spoon from touching the bowl and making an inelegant sound, but that was not certain, nor was there any more convincing explanation. The custom had circulated only within a very small circle, and it seemed Irish Catholic missionaries had brought it to the United States. By now, though, no one still did it except extremely old and conservative Catholic families.
And, as it happened, Irish missionaries had been among the first to land on the American East Coast, so this etiquette had also been passed down among Gotham's upper class. Both Bruce Wayne and Kate Kane knew it.
The problem was that Xivi Town should have