battle-axe! bring up that chocolate!


Whereupon Jeannette would appear with an unusually good cup of
chocolate, just right in warmth, sweetly smelling, and with the play
of light on watered silk upon its unctuous surface, and with
succulent grilled steak flavoured with anise-seed, which would set
Sancho-Tartarin off on the broad grin, and into a laugh that
drowned the shouts of Quixote-Tartarin.

Thus it came about that Tartarin of Tarascon never had left
Tarascon.



VII.
Tartarin -- The Europeans at Shanghai -- Commerce -- The Tartars
-- Can Tartarin of Tarascon be an Impostor? -- The Mirage.


UNDER one conjunction of circumstances, Tartarin did, however,
once almost start out upon a great voyage.

The three brothers Garcio-Camus, relatives of Tarascon,
established in business at Shanghai, offered him the managership of
one of their branches there. This undoubtedly presented the kind of
life he hankered after. Plenty of active business, a whole army of
under-strappers to order about, and connections with Russia,
Persia, Turkey in Asia -- in short, to be a merchant prince!