Alfred; or, The Adventures of a French Gentleman — page 147: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

120 ALFRED; OR ADVENTURES While he was in this ridiculous posture, at one moment examining the green sod beneath, at another casting a searching glance in the direction which the dog had taken, and brandishing his soup-ladle as if it were some martial weapon, the garde champetre* came up, and catching him by the leg, inquired what he was doing? ‘‘ Nothing,” answered Champignon: ‘except looking after a marrow-bone,” he added slowly. ‘* The boundary between two people’s property is a singular place to look after a marrow-bone,” returned the garde-champetre. ‘It is as I tell you,” said the gastronomer; but no socner had he uttered these words than he lost his balance; fell backwards into the enclosure which was attached to the property of Louis Dorval, and knocked off the garde-champetre’s cocked hat with his foot as he rolled over. At the same moment, Azor, who had dis- cussed the bone, and was returning home to his kennel, cantered slowly towards the railing. Perceiving the cocked hat rolling on the ground, before its owner could stoop to pick it up, the playful animal seized it in his mouth, and scampered once more across the fields, wagging his tail, and performing a thousand gambols to exemplify his delight, while the discomfitted authority was obliged to run after the mischievous dog, venting his wrath in curses against Champignon, the hat, the pailings, and Azor. In the meantime, the gastronomer raised himself from his fallen position, muttered something about ‘‘a series of accidents always happening to the best cook in Europe,” and regained the dairy, or kitchen, _to complete the breakfast. A sudden idea had struck De Rosann, that it would be indecent and impolitic in him to suffer Belle-Rose and Champignon to sit down at the morning’s repast with Eloise and her mother. He communicated his thoughts to Mr. Clayton, and proposed to break- fast alone with those two individuals, to prevent any unpleasant feeling or remark on the part of Mrs. Clayton. This plan was greatly approved of, and therefore adopted, the brother-in-law taking upon himself the difficult task of reconciling Eloise to the absence of her lover. No sooner was this arrangement completed than Champignon made his appearance with a number of dishes, which he placed upon a table, in the open air, opposite the barn. De Rosann and Mr. Clayton then separated, agreeing to see each other once more before they left the premises for St. Malo. The former bent his steps towards the dairy, where Belle-Rose anxiously awaited him ; and the latter sought his sister-in-law and niece to conduct them to the repast, so exquisitely cooked, and gallantly spread by the comical figure in the white night-cap. ‘It appears you are acquainted with the gentleman and two ladies who arrived in the carriage,” said Belle-Rose, when De Rosann entered the place which Champignon had converted | into a kitchen. | * A species of police-officer, or gendarme, entrusted with the maintenance of order in the country. EORNIClOOKS