fat, heavy, sybaritic, soft and complaining, full of bourgeois appetites
and domestic necessities, the short-legged, full-bellied body of Sancho
Panza.

Don Quixote and Sancho Panza in the same man! You may imagine the
arguments, the quarrels, the fights. Carried away by some lurid tale
of adventure, Tartarin-Quixote would clamour to be off to the fields of
glory, to set sail for distant lands, but then Tartarin-Sancho ringing
for the maid servant, would say "Jeanette, my chocolate." Upon which
Jeanette would return with a fine cup of chocolate, hot, silky and
scented, and some succulent grilled snacks, flavoured with anise;
greatly pleasing Tartarin-Sancho and silencing the cries of
Tartarin-Quixote.

That is how it happens that Tartarin de Tarascon had never left
Tarascon.




Chapter 6.

There was one occasion when Tartarin nearly went on a long
journey. The three brothers Garcio-Camus, Tarasconais who were in
business in Shanghai, offered him the management of one of their
establishments. Now this was the sort of life he needed. Important
transactions. An office full of clerks to control. Relations with
Russia, Persia, Turkey. In short, Big Business, which in Tartarin's eyes
was of enormous proportions.