I have worked it like a mine, and now that the vein of sausages is nearly
exhausted, little remains but the native soil in which two or three
miserable fragments remain as memorials of past wealth. But my mother
shall cook you a mess of it before long, and she prepares it with
incomparable skill."

"A good idea, but you are my guest."

"I am replete."

"Then come and spice our meal with your good company."

"Excuse me, sir; leave me rather here behind my screen. In the first
place, I am in a happy vein, and on the right track; I feel that
something good will come of this night's work."

"And tomorrow--"

"Hear me out."

"Well."

"You would be doing your other guest an ill-service by inviting me."

"Do you know the steward then?"

"From my earliest youth, I am the son of the gatekeeper of the palace."

"Oh, ho! then you came from that pretty little lodge with the ivy and
the birds, and the jolly old lady."