Pagina 233 di 896

Yes. It took four men, all four ablaze with gorgeous decoration,

and the Chief of them unable to exist with fewer than two gold

watches in his pocket, emulative of the noble and chaste fashion

set by Monseigneur, to conduct the happy chocolate to

Monseigneur's lips. One lacquey carried the chocolate-pot into

the sacred presence; a second, milled and frothed the chocolate

with the little instrument he bore for that function; a third,

presented the favoured napkin; a fourth (he of the two gold

watches), poured the chocolate out. It was impossible for

Monseigneur to dispense with one of these attendants on the

chocolate and hold his high place under the admiring Heavens.

Deep would have been the blot upon his escutcheon if his

chocolate had been ignobly waited on by only three men; he must

have died of two.