human
What's that you're taking?
gpt
Pepper, monsieur.
human
What for?
gpt
To put in the sauce piquante I am making.
human
What's the use of a sauce piquante?
gpt
Why, it's to eat with your joint, monsieur,--your rib of beef. A fillet would have been tenderer, but monsieur wouldn't have that.
human
Why not ortolans, and have done with it? You people have sworn to ruin me to-day! Mon Dieu! such profusion, such waste! Leave the pepper there--you don't need it.
gpt
What's the matter with you, my dear?
human
Monsieur won't let me have the pepper, said Goth;
gpt
What are you thinking about, my dear? Don't you want anything to be good?
human
I want--I want you to stop throwing my money out of the window. Every minute this girl has to have something new--salt or pepper. It's enough to break a man's heart!
gpt
Well, monsieur, I'd like to know why I don't have a supply of such things in my kitchen, like the cooks do in all decent houses?--And, madame, I must have some pickles too, and some capers for the white sauce for the fish.
human
We must send out for some.
gpt
Not by any means; it's all unnecessary. What's the good of capers? You have plenty of mustard here.
human
But, monsieur, you don't put mustard in a white sauce.
gpt
Make it red, then.
human
My dear, if you don't let us have what we need for dinner, everything will be horrid; and then you will certainly have spent money uselessly, instead of doing yourself credit.
gpt
You make me do crazy things, Aldegonde!--What are you going to have for dinner, anyhow?
human
In the first place, we have a julienne soup.
gpt
What does _julienne_ mean?
human
Vegetables cut fine.
gpt
Oho! vegetables at the very beginning! What next?
human
There will be butter and radishes on the table.
gpt
That makes two courses.
human
No, those are hors-d'œuvre; they don't count.
gpt
The next course to the soup is always fish.
human
Are you sure that you couldn't possibly have the soup without it?
gpt
It's customary. We have a pike; salmon would have been better, but as the very smallest ones are worth from fifteen to twenty francs----
human
What an outrage! And to think that there are people who eat salmon!
gpt
So I had a pike instead, and for that we must have a caper sauce.
human
Why can't it be eaten without sauce?
gpt
It wouldn't be good.--Flanking the fish we shall have cutlets with peas and a _tourte aux boulettes_.
human
The twenty-four-sou kind, I trust?
gpt
For eleven people! the idea! The two-franc size, and that will be very scant!
human
Well, I hope that that's all.
gpt
I should think not! that's only the first course. Now we come to the second.
human
Great God!
gpt
For your joint, you have ribs of beef; then, for vegetables, on one side string beans, on the other spinach.
human
Why need you have more vegetables? You have served them already with your julienne, you told me, so you don't want them again.
gpt
Julienne is a soup, not a meat course. Then----
human
What! is there something more?
gpt
Macaroni; and as it is always necessary to have sweets----
human
Take my head at once!
gpt
No, my dear; that wouldn't be good. We shall have a _crême à la vanille_. You must give me some sugar; I haven't any left.
human
Nor I, either!
gpt
Well, there's plenty at the grocer's.
human
No, I still have a few pieces of candied sugar.
gpt
Give them to Goth.--For dessert, such fruit as is in season.
human
Prunes?
gpt
This is summer time, and you don't give your guests dried fruit. Then cheese----
human
Marolles--that's the best.
gpt
Nonsense! your marolles smells up the whole room. Roquefort, and biscuit.
human
Enough! enough! you may as well kill me!
gpt
Oh! you forgot the salad, madame.
human
There's salad for you! That will teach you to ask for something else!