‘Why, what your tortoise has been up to!’
‘What on earth do you mean?’
‘Well, sir, could you believe that it got out of your room—goodness knows how—and walked downstairs and right into the tank?’
‘You owl! you might have guessed I put it there myself.’
‘Did you indeed, sir? Well, you certainly have made a mess of it then.’
‘How so?’
‘Why the tortoise has eaten up a tench—a superb tench weighing three pounds—which the master of the restaurant put into the tank only last night. The waiter has just been telling me about it.’
‘Go at once and fetch me Gazelle and the scales.’
During Joseph’s absence his master took down a volume of Buffon, and consulted that eminent authority on the subject of tortoises and turtles. There seemed to be no doubt, according to the celebrated naturalist, that these creatures did eat fish voraciously when they got the chance.