The omelette that I had ordered was as light as a French cook always makes them, and the slice of brie that closed my repast was as coulant as it should be.
Then M. Brice, still talking, made me out my bill on the back of one of the cards of his restaurant. Hors-d'œuvre, 2d.; pain, 1d.; potage, 2d.; poisson, 8d.; entrée, 6d.; omelette, 4d.; fromage, 2d.; half ordinaire, 6d.; total, 2s. 7d.
1st May.
[CHAPTER XV]
THE TROCADERO (SHAFTESBURY AVENUE)
I dined one day early last week at the Trocadero, a little specially-ordered tête-à-tête dinner over which the chef had taken much trouble—his Suprêmes de sole Trocadéro, and Poulet de printemps Rodisi are well worth remembering—and while I drank the Moët '84, cuvée 1714, and luxuriated in some brandy dating back to 1815, the solution of a problem that had puzzled me mildly came to me.
An old friend was sending his son, a boy at Harrow, up to London to see a dentist before going back to school, and asked me if I would mind giving him something to eat, and taking him to a performance of some kind. I said "Yes," of course; but I felt it was something of an undertaking. When I was at Harrow my ideas of luxury consisted of ices at Fuller's and sausages and mashed potatoes carried home in a paper bag. I had no idea as to what Jones minor's tastes might be; but if he was anything like what I was then he would prefer plenty of good food combined with music and gorgeousness and excitement to the most delicate mousse ever made, eaten in philosophic calm. The Trocadero was the place; if he was not impressed by the dinner, by the magnificence of the rooms, by the beautiful staircase, by the music, then I did not know my Harrow boy.
Jones minor arrived at my club at five minutes to the half-past seven, and I saw at once that he was not a young gentleman to be easily impressed. He had on a faultless black short jacket and trousers, a white waistcoat, and a tuberose in his buttonhole. I asked him if he knew the Trocadero, and he said that he had not dined there; but plenty of boys in his house had, and had said that it was jolly good.