PUNCH, OR THE LONDON CHARIVARI.

A LITTLE DINNER AT TIMMINS'S.

young friend and protege of his, of
considerable merit;, M. Cavalca-
dour, happened to be disengaged,
through the lamented death of
Lord Hauncher, with whom
young Cavalcadour had made
his de'but as an artist._ He had
nothing to refuse to his mastei,
Mirobolant, and would impress
himself to be useful to a gourme
so distinguished as Monsieur
Timmins. Fitz went away as
pleased as Punch with this enco-
mium of the great Mirobolant,
and was one of those who voted
against the decreasing of Miro-
bolant's salary, when that mea-
sure was proposed by Mb.
Parings, Colonel Close, and
the Screw party in the Committee of the Club.

Faithful to the promise of his great master, the youthful Cavalcadour
called in Lilliput Street the next day. A rich crimson velvet waistcoat,
with buttons of blue glass and gold, a variegated blue satin stock, over
which a graceful mosaic chain hung in glittering folds, a white hat worn
on one side of his long curling ringlets, redolent with the most delight-
ful hair oil—one of those white hats which looks as if it had been just
skinned—and a pair of gloves not exactly of the colour of beurre frais,
but of beurre that has been up the chimney, with a natty cane with a gilt,
knob, completed the upper part, at any rate, of the costume of the young
fellow whom the page introduced to Mrs. Timmins. _

Her mamma and she had been just having a dispute about the
gooseberry cream when Cavalcadour arrived. His presence silenced
Mrs. Gashleigh ; and Rosa, in carrying on a conversation with him in
the French language, which she had acquired perfectly in an elegant
finishing establishment in Kensington Square, had a great advantage over
her mother, who could only pursue the dialogue with very much diffi-
culty, eyeing one or other interlocutor with an alarmed and suspicious
look, and gasping out "We" whenever she thought a proper oppor-
tunity arose for the use of that affirmative.

" I have two leetl menus weez me," said Cavalcadour to Mrs.
Gashleigh.
" Minews—yes O indeed," answered the lady.
" Two little cartes."

" 0, two carts! 0 we," she said—"coming, I suppose;" and she looked
out of window to see if they were there.

Cavalcadour smiled; he produced from a pocket-book a pink paper
and a blue paper, on which he had written two bills of fare, the last two
which he had composed for the lamented Hauncher, and he handed
these over to Mrs. Fitzroy.

The poor little woman was dreadfully puzzled with these documents,
(she has them in her possession still), and began to read from the pink
one as follows:—

"diner pour 16 personnes.

Potage (clair) a la Rigodon.
Do. a la Prince de Tombuctou.

Deux Poissons.

Saumon de Severne, Rougets Gratings

a la Boadicee. a ia Cleopatre.

Deux Releves.
Le Chapeau-a-trois-cornes farci a la Robespierre.
Le Tire-botte a l'Odalisque.

Six Entrees.
Saute de Hannetons a l'Epingliere.
Cotelettes a la Megatherium.
Bourrasque de Veau a la Palsambleu.
Laitances de Carpe en soguette a la Reine Pomart,
Turban de Volaille a l'Archeveque de Cantorberj.

And so on with* the entremets, and hors d'ceuvre. and the rotis, and
releves.

" Madame will see that the dinners are quite simple," said M.
Lavalcadour.

" 0 quite!" said Rosa, dreadfully puzzled.
Which would Madame like ?"

.-mwu11 W^d„?eiH' Mamma?" R°sa asked; adding, as if after
a little thought, I think, Sir, we should prefer the blue one." At

which Mrs. Gashleigh nodded as knowingly as she could; though,
pink or blue, I defy anybody to know what these cooks mean by their
jargon.

" If you please, Madam, we will go down below and examine the
itzroy Timmins, whose taste for scene of operations," Monsieur Cavalcadour said; and so he was
wine is remarkable for so young | marshalled down the stairs to the kitchen, which he didn't like to name,
a man, is a member of the Com- , and appeared before the Cook in all his splendour,
mittee of the Megatherium Club, ; He cast a rapid glance round the premises, and a smile of something
and the great Mirobolant, good-' like contempt lighted up his features. " Will you bring pen and ink, if
natured as all great men are, was j you please, and I will write down a few of the articles which will be
only too happy to oblige him. A J necessary for us ? We shall require, if you please, eight more stew-
pans, a couple of braising pans, eight saute pans, six bain-marie pans, a
Ireezing-pot with accessories, and a few more articles of which I will
inscribe the names;" and Mr. Cavalcadour did so, dashing down,
with the rapidity of genius, a tremendous list of ironmongery goods,
which he handed over to Mrs. Timmins. She and her mamma
were quite frightened by the awful catalogue.

" I will call three days hence and superintend the progress of
matters ; and we will make the stock for the soup the day before the
dinner."

"Don't you think, Sir," here interposed Mrs. Gashleigh, "that
one soup—a fine rich mock-turtle, such as I have seen in the best
houses in the West of England, and such as the late Lord Forty-
skewer—"

"You will get what is wanted for the soups, if you please," Mr.
Cavalcadour continued, not heeding this interruption, and as bold as
a captain on his own quarter-deck : " for the stock of clear soup, you
will get a leg of beef, a leg of veal, and a ham."

" We Munseer," said the cook, dropping a terrified curtsey. "A leg
of beef, a leg of veal, and a ham."

" You can't serve a leg of veal at a party," said Mrs. Gashleigh ;
"and a leg of beef is not a company dish."

" Madam, they are to make the stock of the clear soup," Mb.
Cavalcadour said.

" What?" cried Mrs. Gashleigh ; and the cook repeated his former
expression.

"Never, whilst 7 am in this house," cried out Mrs. Gashleigh
indignantly; "never in a Christian English household; never shall
such sinful waste be permitted by me. If you wish me to dine, Rosa,
you must get a dinner less expensive. The Right Honourable Lord
Fortyskewer could dine, Sir, without these wicked luxuries, and I
presume my daughter's guests can."

"Madame is perfectly at liberty to decide," said M. Cavalcadour.
" I came to oblige Madame and my good friend Mirobolant, not
myself."

" Thank you, Sir, I think it will be too expensive," Rosa stammered
in a great flutter; " but 1 am very much obliged to you."

"II riy a point d' obligation, Madame" said Monsieur Alcide
Camille Cavalcadour in his most superb manner; and, making a
splendid bow to the lady of the house, was respectfully conducted to the
upper regions by little Buttons, leaving Rosa frightened, the cook
amazed and silent, and Mrs. Gashleigh boiling with iudignation
against the dresser.

Up to that moment, Mrs. Blowsf.r, the cook, who had come out of
Devonshire with Mrs. Gashleigh (of course that lady garrisoned her
daughter's house with servants, and expected them to give her inform-
ation of everything which took place there); up to that moment, I say,
the cook had been quite contented with that subterraneous station
which she occupied ia life, and had a pride in keeping her kitchen neat,
bright, and clean. It was, in her opinion, the comfortablest room in
the house (we all thought so when we came down of a night to smoke
there); and the handsomest kitchen in Lilliput Street.

But after the visit, of Cavalcadour, the cook became quite discon-
tented and uneasy in her mind. She talked in a melancholy manner
over the area railings to the cooks at twenty-three and twenty-five.
She stepped over the way, and conferred with the cook there. She
made inquiries at the baker's and at other places about the kitchens in
the great bouses in Brobdingnag Gardens, and how many spits, bang-
marry pans, and stoo pans they had. She thought she could not do
with an occasional help, but must have a kitchen-maid. And she was
often discovered by a gentlemen of the police force, who was, I believe,
her cousin, and occasionally visited her when Mrs. Gashleigh was not
in the house or spying it;—she was discovered, seated with Mrs. Rundett
in her lap, its leaves bespattered with her tears. " My Pease be gone,
Pelisse," she said, " zins I zaw that ther Franchman :" and it was all
the faithful fellow could do to console her.

the dinner," said Timmins, in a rage at last: " having it cooked

in the house is out of the question: the bother of it: and the row your
mother makes are enough to drive one mad. It won't happen again, I
can promise you, Rosa—order it at Fubsby's at once. You can have
everything from Fubsby's—from footmen to saltspoons, Let's go
and order it at Fubsby's." "Darling, if you don't mind the expense,
and it will be any relief to you, let us do as you wish," Rosa said: and
she put on her bonnet, and they went oft' to the grand cook and con
fectioner of the Brobdingnag quarter.