A woman said:
"Let the poor waiter alone! You'll end by making him get angry. He's paid to attend on us, and not to be laughed at by us."
Then, M. Saval noticed that each guest had brought his own provisions. One held a bottle of wine, and the other a pie. This one had a loaf of bread, and one a ham.
The tall, fair young fellow placed in his hands an enormous sausage, and gave orders:
"I say! Go and settle up the sideboard in the corner over there. You are to put the bottles at the left and the provisions at the right."
Saval, getting quite distracted, exclaimed: "But messieurs, I am a notary!"
There was a moment's silence, and then a wild outburst of laughter. One suspicious gentleman asked:
"How are you here?"
He explained, telling about his project of going to the Opera, his departure from Vernon, his arrival in Paris, and the way in which he had spent the evening.
They sat around him to listen to him; they greeted him with words of applause, and called him Scheherazade.