Petrolicoconose, l'Zouzou, and Dodor!

The cooking and waiting should be done by Trilby, her friend Angele
Boisse, M. et Mme. Vinard, and such little Vinards as could be trusted
with glass and crockery and mince-pies; and if that was not enough,
they would also cook themselves and wait upon each other.

When dinner should be over, supper was to follow, with scarcely any
interval to speak of; and to partake of this, other guests should be
bidden--Svengali and Gecko, and perhaps one or two more. No ladies!

For as the unsusceptible Laird expressed it, in the language of a
gillie he had once met at a servants' dance in a Highland
country-house, "Them wimmen spiles the ball!"

Elaborate cards of invitation were sent out, in the designing and
ornamentation of which the Laird and Taffy exhausted all their fancy
(Little Billee had no time).

Wines and spirits and English beers were procured at great cost from
M. E. Delevigne's, in the Rue St. Honore, and liqueurs of every
description--chartreuse, curacoa, ratafia de cassis, and anisette; no
expense was spared.

Also truffled galantines of turkey, tongues, hams, rillettes de Tours,
pates de foie gras, "fromage d'Italie" (which has nothing to do with
cheese), saucissons d'Arles et de Lyon, with and without garlic, cold
jellies, peppery and salt--everything that French charcutiers and
their wives can make out of French pigs, or any other animal whatever,
beast, bird, or fowl (even cats and rats), for the supper; and sweet
jellies and cakes, and sweetmeats, and confections of all kinds, from
the famous pastry-cook at the corner of the Rue Castiglione.

Mouths went watering all day long in joyful anticipation. They water
somewhat sadly now at the mere remembrance of these delicious
things--the mere immediate sight or scent of which in these degenerate
latter days would no longer avail to promote any such delectable
secretion. Helas! ahime! ach weh! ay de mi! eheu! [Greek: oimot]--in
point of fact, _alas_!

That is the very exclamation I wanted.

Christmas eve came round. The pieces of resistance and plum-pudding
and mince-pies had not yet arrived from London--but there was plenty
of time.

_Les trois Angliches_ dined at le Pere Trin's, as usual, and played
billiards and dominoes at the Cafe du Luxembourg, and possessed their
souls in patience till it was time to go and hear the midnight mass at
the Madeleine, where Roucouly, the great baritone of the Opera
Comique, w