'What a capital idea that was of yours to bring down old Alphonse to
Dipwell! You should have heard old John Thresher and Mark Sweetwinter
and the others grumbling at the interference of "French frogs;" with
their beef, though Alphonse vowed he only ordered the ox to be turned
faster, and he dressed their potatoes in six different ways. I doubt if
Dipwell has composed itself yet. You know I sat for president in their
tent while the beef went its first round; and Alphonse was in an awful
hurry to drag me into what he called the royal tent. By the way, you
should have hauled the standard down at sunset.'

'Not when the son had not come down among us,' said my father, smiling.

'Well, I forgot to tell you about Alphonse. By the way, we'll have him
in our service. There was he plucking at me: "Monsieur Henri-Richie,
Monsieur Henri-Richie! mille complimens... et les potages, Monsieur!--a
la Camerani, a la tortue, aux petits pois... c'est en vrai artiste
que j'ai su tout retarder jusqu'au dernier moment.... Monsieur! cher
Monsieur Henri-Richie, je vous en supplie, laissez-la, ces planteurs de
choux." And John Thresher, as spokesman for the rest: "Master Harry, we
beg to say, in my name, we can't masticate comfortably while we've got
a notion Mr. Frenchman he 's present here to play his Frenchified tricks
with our plain wholesome dishes. Our opinion is, he don't know beef from
hedgehog; and let him trim 'em, and egg 'em,' and bread-crumb 'em, and
pound the mess all his might, and then tak' and roll 'em into balls,
we say we wun't, for we can't make English muscle out o' that."--And
Alphonse, quite indifferent to the vulgar: "He! mais pensez donc au
Papa, Monsieur Henri-Richie, sans doute il a une sante de fer: mais
encore faut-il lui menager le suc gastrique, pancreatique...."'

'Ay, ay!' laughed my father; 'what sets you thinking of Alphonse?'

'I suppose because I shall have to be speaking French in an hour.'

'German, Richie, German.'

'But these Belgians speak French.'

'Such French as it is. You will, however, be engaged in a German
conversation first, I suspect.'

'Very well, I'll stumble on. I don't much like it.'

'In six hours from this second of time, Richie, boy, I undertake
to warrant you fonder of the German tongue than of any other spoken
language.'

I looked at him. He gave me a broad pleasant smile, without sign of a
jest lurking in one corner.

The scene attracted me. Laughing fishwife faces radi