Beneath the painted arches and twin crystal chandeliers of the City Palace of Jaipur, we composed a seated dinner in the old royal manner — a single flowered table set upon a mirror-smooth floor, framed by a corridor of scalloped stone.

There are rooms that ask nothing of you but restraint, and everything of you in precision. To lay a table here is to let the palace do the speaking, and simply keep time with its grandeur.