se, clever enough to foresee Fanchette's probable
defection,--there is nothing like the exercise of power for teaching
policy,--was already resolved to do without a servant. For six months
she had studied, without seeming to do so, the culinary operations
that made Fanchette a cordon-bleu worthy of cooking for a doctor. In
the matter of choice living, doctors are on a par with bishops. The
doctor had brought Fanchette's talents to perfection. In the provinces
the lack of occupation and the monotony of existence turn all activity
of mind towards the kitchen. People do not dine as luxuriously in the
country as they do in Paris, but they dine better; the dishes are
meditated upon and studied. In rural regions we often find some Careme
in petticoats, some unrecognized genius able to serve a simple dish of
haricot-beans worthy of the nod with which Rossini welcomed a
perfectly-rendered measure.

When studying for his degree in Paris, the doctor had followed a
course of chemistry under Rouelle, and had gathered some ideas which
he afterwards put to use in the chemistry of cooking. His memory is
famous in Issoudun for certain improvements little known outside of
Berry. It was he who discovered that an omelette is far more delicate
when the whites and the yolks are not beaten together with the
violence which cooks usually put into the operation. He considered
that the whites should be beaten to a froth and the yolks gently added
by degrees; moreover a frying-pan should never be used, but a
"cagnard" of porcelain or earthenware. The "cagnard" is a species of
thick dish standing on four feet, so that when it is placed on the
stove the air circulates underneath and prevents the fire from
cracking it. In Touraine the "cagnard" is called a "cauquemarre."
Rabelais, I think, speaks of a "cauquemarre" for cooking cockatrice
eggs, thus proving the antiquity of the utensil. The doctor had also
found a way to prevent the tartness of browned butter; but his secret,
which unluckily he kept to his own kitchen, has been lost.

Flore, a born fryer and roaster, two qualities that can never be
acquired by observation nor yet by labor, soon surpassed Fanchette. In
making herself a cordon-bleu she was thinking of Jean-Jacques's
comfort; though she was, it must be owned, tolerably dainty.
Incapable, like all persons without education, of doing anything with
her brains, she spent her activity upon household matters. She rubbed
up the furniture til