I cannot conceal the fact, gentlemen hunters, that you are not in the good
graces of the old _chef_, and I am not far from attributing his departure
with whatever pretexts he may choose to color it, to the annoyance he
feels at your complete indifference. Thinking it might be agreeable to
him, I informed him, a few weeks ago, that our hunting-meetings were about
to secure him a concourse of connoisseurs worthy of his talents."

"Monsiuer le Marquis will excuse me," replied Rostain with a melancholy
smile, "if I do not share his illusions; in the first place, the hunter
devours and does not eat; he brings to the table the stomach of a man just
saved from shipwreck, _iratum ventrem_, as Horace says, and swallows up
without choice and without reflection, _gulæ parens_, the most serious
productions of an artist; in the second place, the violent exercise of the
chase has developed in such guests an inordinate thirst, which they
generally slake without moderation. Now, Monsieur le Marquis is not
ignorant of the opinion of the ancients on the excessive use of wine
during meals; it blunts the taste--_ersurdant vina palatum_! Nevertheless,
Monsieur le Marquis may rest assured that I shall labor to please his
guests with my usual conscientiousness, though with the painful certainty
of not being understood."

After uttering these words, Rostain draped himself in his toga, cast to
heaven the look of an unappreciated genius, and left my study.

"I would have thought," I said to the marquis, "that you would have spared
no sacrifice to retain that great man."

"You judge me correctly, sir," replied Monsieur de Malouet; "but you'll
see that he carried me to the very limits of impossibility. Precisely a
week ago, Monsieur Rostain, having solicited a private audience, announced