Ah! the villain! ah! the villain! he keeps right on. What a stupid!
MONSIEUR TROUSQUIN.
Don’t be alarmed, there won’t be any cutting done; nature is about to speak.—(To his wife.) Give me my soup; I’m hungry.—The mighty Solomon, looking at the two mothers with Argus eyes, says to himself—(To his wife.) In God’s name, why don’t you get through with the onions?—“This child cannot have two mothers; if it was two fathers, that might be, such things have been seen.”—(To his wife.) You know something about that.—“Now, there’s a snake in the grass here; the real mother’s affection manifests itself by a deluge of tears; but this other vixen of a mother, who’s as placid as Baptiste,”—(To his wife.) It smells as if it was burned.—“has no maternal entrails; so the case is decided!”—Pull the cord.—“This, messieurs and mesdames, represents King David doing battle with the giant Goliath, the terror of the Philistines.”—(To his wife.) Why don’t you look and see if it’s right?—See with what force David hurls the stone that lays the giant in the dust.
MADAME TROUSQUIN. (looking over the lantern).
This ain’t the one; you’re showing ’em the Battle of Marengo now.
MONSIEUR TROUSQUIN.MONSIEUR TROUSQUIN.
As I was saying, messieurs and mesdames, you see the famous Battle of Marengo, won by the French troops.—(To his wife.) You always put in too many carrots.
MADAME TROUSQUIN.
You don’t say! you want to choose your vegetables, do you? You’re getting to be very particular. How much have you made to-day?
MONSIEUR TROUSQUIN.