Gashleigh nodded as knowingly as she could; though pink or blue, I defy
anybody to know what these cooks mean by their jargon.

"If you please, Madame, we will go down below and examine the scene of
operations," Monsieur Cavalcadour said; and so he was marshalled down
the stairs to the kitchen, which he didn't like to name, and appeared
before the cook in all his splendor.

He cast a rapid glance round the premises, and a smile of something like
contempt lighted up his features. "Will you bring pen and ink, if
you please, and I will write down a few of the articles which will be
necessary for us? We shall require, if you please, eight more stew-pans,
a couple of braising-pans, eight saute-pans, six bainmarie-pans, a
freezing-pot with accessories, and a few more articles of which I will
inscribe the names." And Mr. Cavalcadour did so, dashing down, with the
rapidity of genius, a tremendous list of ironmongery goods, which he
handed over to Mrs. Timmins. She and her mamma were quite frightened by
the awful catalogue.

"I will call three days hence and superintend the progress of matters;
and we will make the stock for the soup the day before the dinner."

"Don't you think, sir," here interposed Mrs. Gashleigh, "that one
soup--a fine rich mock-turtle, such as I have seen in the best houses in
the West of England, and such as the late Lord Fortyskewer--"

"You will get what is wanted for the soups, if you please," Mr.
Cavalcadour continued, not heeding this interruption, and as bold as a
captain on his own quarter-deck: "for the stock of clear soup, you will
get a leg of beef, a leg of veal, and a ham."