Home › Sundry Guides to Good Cheer › Sundry Guides to Good Cheer: Monsieur

Sundry Guides to Good Cheer: Monsieur

A provincial dining there in April, on perceiving melons on the card, ordered one. "What!" he exclaimed, after examining his bill, 'thirty francs for a melon! You are joking!" "Monsieur," replied Bignon, "if you can find me three or four at the same price, I will buy them immediately." "Fifteen francs for a peach?" inquired Prince Narischkin; "they must be very scarce." "It is n't the peaches that are scarce, mon prince; it is the Narischkins." "Monsieur Bignon, a red herring at two and a half francs! It seems to me that is excessive." "But these prices are marked in your interest," rejoined the restaurateur. "It is the barrier I have established between my clients and the vulgar. Why do you come here? To be among yourselves, to avoid embarrassing or compromising surroundings. If I changed my prices, the house would be invaded, and you would all leave."

Another patron who complained of a sauce was asked, "Did you dine here last evening?" "No," he replied. "That is the trouble, then; you spoiled your taste in the other restaurant."

Still another guest objected to the charges on his bill, comparing it with an identical breakfast of a few days previous which amounted to eighteen and a half francs, whereas the breakfast in question was charged twenty-one francs, eighty centimes. "I will investigate the mistake," said Bignon, who, with the two bills, proceeded to the desk, returning shortly afterwards. "It is very true, Monsieur, that a mistake was made in your favour last Monday; but I make no claim for restitution!"

Do the anecdotes and cook-books and treatises on eating and drinking savour of gluttony to some who eat only to live, and who are lacking in the finesse of Good Cheer? Let all such consult a volume written by one of the gentler sex, and hearken to her admirable definition of the Tenth Muse: "Gluttony is ranked with the deadly sins; it should be honoured among the cardinal virtues. To-day women, as a rule, think all too little of the joys of eating; they hold lightly the treasures that should prove invaluable. They refrain to recognise that there is no less art in eating well than in painting well or writing well. For the gourmande, or glutton, duty and amusement go hand in hand. Mind and body alike are satisfied. The good of a pleasantly planned dinner outbalances the evil of daily trials and tribulations. By artistic gluttony, beauty is increased, if not actually created. Rejoice in the knowledge that gluttony is the best cosmetic. Gross are they who see in eating and drinking nought but grossness. Gluttony is a vice only when it leads to stupid, inartistic excess." 1 1 "The Feasts of Autolycus-The don: John Lane. New York: The Diary of a Greedy Woman. Edited Merriam Co. 1896." by Elizabeth Robins Pennell. Lon-