Go4Expert - Derived class variable initialisation.

I have code with the following layout:

Code:

class Table

{

    protected:

        // variables for all subclasses

    public:

        Table(int sizeOfTable);

}

Table::Table(int capacity)

{

  sizeOfTable = capacity

  // initialise other variables

}



class roundTable: public Table

{

    public:

       roundTable(int capacity) : Table (capacity){}

       //declare subclass variables

}

Now, the problem I have is that I have a number of variables that need initialising(in a function) for each subclass, and I want this function to only be called once, as the subclass is constructed.
I have found out (the hard way) that I cannot simply put a virtual function in the constructor for 'Table'.
However, I cannot seem to find any alternative to this, I have looked at passing values up from the derived class but this doesn't seem to fit my problem at all.
Is there an easy way around this or am I looking at this problem the completely wrong way?
I can easily create an initialisation function in the subclass and call it in the main method, but I'm hoping there is a way to do it as I have described above.
Any help is much appreciated.