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Provencale Sauce

Put a spoonful of salad-oil into a stewpan with a clove of garlic, a table-spoonful of chopped shallots, and three table-spoonfuls of chopped raw mushrooms. Stir these ingredients over the fire for five minutes, then add a bay-leaf, a sprig of thyme, a glassful of sherry, half a tea-spoonful of peppercorns, and half a blade of mace. Simmer gently for a quarter of an hour. Take out the herbs and garlic, and add two table-spoonfuls more stock, and a little salt if required. Simmer five minutes, carefully skim the sauce, rub it through a fine hair sieve, heat it again, and serve very hot. A table-spoonful of lemon-juice should be added at the last moment, or, if preferred, three or four ripe tomatoes may be boiled in the sauce until they are soft enough to pass through the sieve. Time, half an hour. Probable cost, uncertain. Sufficient for four or five persons.