"My dear fellow," said Alfred to Robineau, "I trust that you will send Messieurs Vincent and Cunette to bed, and that they are not to do your cooking. If they are, I shall not eat a mouthful."
"This is very embarrassing!" said Robineau, running to the bell-cord and pulling it violently. François answered the summons, carrying a broom and a feather duster.
"What are you doing, François?"
"I am sweeping and cleaning the dining-room, monsieur. You should have seen the dust and cobwebs there! Bless my soul! the spiders I have killed!"
"And who is attending to the dinner?"
François looked at Vincent, who looked at Cunette, who looked at nothing, because he could no longer see.
"Well, knaves! do you mean to answer?" cried Robineau angrily. "Do you intend to give me spiders for dinner?"
"My dear fellow," said Alfred, "you chose to come here to occupy your château without warning, without securing a staff of servants and having whatever was necessary done in this old house; so you must expect not to find the service well regulated at the outset.—However, as we must dine, and as you have invited Monsieur Férulus, who certainly will not fail to come, we must try to find a cook in the vicinity, which can hardly be impossible.—Come, Monsieur Vincent, tell us—at what house hereabout do they live best?"
"Oh! bless me, monsieur, they live pretty well, everywhere; but best of all at Monsieur Cheval, the veterinary’s. He has a daughter, you see, who’s been in service at Clermont, at a rich merchant’s house."
"Well! that’s what we want to know.—François, go at once to Monsieur Cheval’s, and ask his daughter to be good enough to come to the château to do the cooking; she won’t refuse. Pick up provisions wherever you go; send to Talende for them, as it’s only a league and a half; lastly, arrange matters so that we shall not be obliged to go to bed without candles and without sheets."