les which will be
necessary for us? We shall require, if you please, eight more stew-pans,
a couple of braising-pans, eight saute-pans, six bainmarie-pans, a
freezing-pot with accessories, and a few more articles of which I will
inscribe the names." And Mr. Cavalcadour did so, dashing down, with the
rapidity of genius, a tremendous list of ironmongery goods, which he
handed over to Mrs. Timmins. She and her mamma were quite frightened by
the awful catalogue.

"I will call three days hence and superintend the progress of matters;
and we will make the stock for the soup the day before the dinner."

"Don't you think, sir," here interposed Mrs. Gashleigh, "that one
soup--a fine rich mock-turtle, such as I have seen in the best houses in
the West of England, and such as the late Lord Fortyskewer--"

"You will get what is wanted for the soups, if you please," Mr.
Cavalcadour continued, not heeding this interruption, and as bold as a
captain on his own quarter-deck: "for the stock of clear soup, you will
get a leg of beef, a leg of veal, and a ham."

"We, munseer," said the cook, dropping a terrified curtsy: "a leg of
beef, a leg of veal, and a ham."

"You can't serve a leg of veal at a party," said Mrs. Gashleigh; "and a
leg of beef is not a company dish."

"Madame, they are to make the stock of the clear soup," Mr. Cavalcadour
said.

"WHAT!" cried Mrs. Gashleigh; and the cook repeated his former
expression.

"Never, whilst I am in this house," cried out Mrs. Gashleigh,
indignantly; "never in a Christian ENGLISH household; never shall such
sinful waste be permitted by ME. If you wish me to dine, Rosa, you must
get a dinner less EXPENSIVE. The Right Honorable Lord Fortyskewer could
dine, sir, without these wicked luxuries, and I presume my daughter's
guests can."

"Madame is perfectly at liberty to decide," said M. Cavalcadour. "I came
to oblige Madame and my good friend Mirobolant, not myself."

"Thank you, sir, I think it WILL be too expensive," Rosa stammered in a
great flutter; "but I am very much obliged to you."

"Il n'y a point d'obligation, Madame," said Monsieur Alcide Camille
Cavalcadour in his most superb manner; and, making a splendid bow to the
lady of the house, was respectfully conducted to the upper regions by
little Buttons, leaving Rosa frightened, the cook amazed and silent, and
Mrs. Gashleigh boiling with indignation against the dresser.

Up to that moment, Mrs. Blowser, the cook, who had com