"Order the dinner; you know how to do it."
"Pardon me, but I think I won't order again," said Cherami; "I went about it like a bull in a china-shop; I don't propose to do it any more; you do the ordering."
"What does this mean? You, a man who understood life so well!"
"On the contrary, I understood it very ill; and I have changed all that—a complete reformation; better late than never."
Gustave finally decided to order the dinner; but at every moment his guest said to him:
"Enough; that's quite enough! and we'll have only one kind of wine."
"Faith! my dear fellow, you may eat and drink what you choose; but I propose to order to suit myself; I haven't turned hermit, you see."
"Go on, you are the master. I will get drunk, if you insist; it's my duty to obey you."
Throughout the first course, Cherami put water in his wine, and was very abstemious.
"I shouldn't know you," said Gustave.