and explain to the English company that such
dinners could proceed from nobody except a French gentleman commingling
all the knowledge of the joint with the loftier conception of the hash,
the mince--the what you call? Ah, you have no name for it, because
you do not know the proper thing. Then, in the presence of admiring
Englishmen, I will lean back in my chair, the most comfortable chair
that can be found--"

"Stop. You have got to get into it yet," Carne interrupted, rudely; "and
the way to do that is not to lean back in it. The fault of your system
has always been that you want to enjoy everything before you get it."

"And of yours," retorted Charron, beginning to imbibe the pugnacity of
an English landlord, "that when you have got everything, you will enjoy
what? Nothing!"

"Even a man of your levity hits the nail on the head sometimes," said
Carne, "though the blow cannot be a very heavy one. Nature has not
fashioned me for enjoyment, and therefore affords me very little. But
some little I do expect in the great inversion coming, in the upset of
the scoundrels who have fattened on my flesh, and stolen my land, to
make country gentlemen--if it were possible--of themselves. It will take
a large chimney to burn their title-deeds, for the robbery has lasted
for a century. But I hold the great Emperor's process signed for
that; and if you come to my cookery, you will say that I am capable
of enjoyment. Fighting I enjoy not, as hot men do, nor guzzling, nor
swigging, nor singing of songs; for all of which you have a talent, my
friend. But the triumph of quiet skill I like; and I love to turn the
balance on my enemies. Of these there are plenty, and among them all who
live in that fishy little hole down there."

Carne pointed contemptuously at Springhaven, that poor little village
in the valley. But the sun had just lifted his impartial face above the
last highland that baulked his contemplation of the home of so many and
great virtues; and in the brisk moisture of his early salute the village
in the vale looked lovely. For a silvery mist was flushed with rose,
like a bridal veil warmed by the blushes of the bride, and the curves of
the land, like a dewy palm leaf, shone and sank alternate.

"What a rare blaze they will make!" continued Carne, as the sunlight
glanced along the russet thatch, and the blue smoke arose from the
earliest chimney. "Every cottage there shall be a bonfire, because it
has cast off allegianc