Lady Emily took it out of his hand and opened it.

“And some very poetical description, too, Doctor; although you affect to despise it so much.  Here is an eulogium on the partridge.  I doubt much if St. Preux ever made a finer on his adorable Julie;” and she read as follows:—­

“La Perdrix tient Ie premier rang apres la Becasse, dans la cathegorie des gibiers a plumes.  C’est, lorsqu’elle est rouge, l’un des plus honorables et desmeilleurs rotis qui puissent etre etales sur une table gourmande.  Sa forme appetissante, sa taille elegante et svelte, quoiqu’ arrondie, son embonpoint modere, ses jambes d’ecarlate; enfin, son fumet divin et ses qualites restaurantes, tout concourt a la faire rechercher des vrais amateurs.  D’autres gibiers sont plus rares, plus chers, mieux accueillis par la vanite, le prejuge, et la mode; la Perdrix rouge, belle de sa propre beaute, dont les qualites sont independantes de la fantaisie, qui reunit en sa personne tout ce qui peut charmer les yeux, delecter Ie palais, stimuler l’appetit, et ranimer les forces, plaira dans-tous les temps, et concourra a l’honneur de tous les festins, sous quelque forme qu’elle y paroisse.” [1]

[1] “Manuel des Amphitryons.”

The Doctor sighed:  “That’s nothing to what he says of the woodcock:”  and with trembling hand she turned over the leaves, till he found the place.  “Here it is,” said he, “page 88, chap. xvi.  Just be so good as read that, Lady Emily, and say whether it is not infamous that Monsieur Grillade has never even attempted to make it.”

With an air of melancholy enthusiasm she read—­“Dans les pays ou les Becasses sont communes, on obtient, de leurs carcasses pilees dans un mortier, une puree sur laquelle on dresse diverses entrees, telles que de petites cotelettes de mouton, etc.  Cotte puree est l’une des plus delicieuses choses qui puisse etre introduite dans Ie palais d’un gourmand, et l’on peut assurer que quiconque n’en a point mange n’a point connu les joies du paradis terrestre.  Une puree de Becasse, bien faite, est Ie ne plus ultra des jouissances humaines.  II faut mourir apres l’avoir goutee, car toutes les autres alors ne paroitront plus qu’insipides.”

“And these becasses, these woodcocks, perfectly swarm on the Glenallan estate in the season,” cried the Doctor; “and to think that such a man should have been refused.  But Miss Mary will repent this the longest day she lives.  I had a cook in my eye for them, too—­one who is quite up to the making of this puree. ’Pon my soul! she deserve to live upon sheep’s head and haggis for the rest of her life; and if I was Lady Juliana I would try the effect of bread and water.”

“She certainly does not aspire to such joys as are here portrayed in this your book of life,” said Lady Emily; “for I suspect she could endure existence even upon roast mutton with the man she loves.”

“That’s nothing to the purpose, unless the man she loves, as you call it, loves to live upon roast mutton too.  Take my word for it, unless she gives her husband good dinners he’ll not care twopence for her in a week’s time.  I look upon bad dinners to be the source of much of the misery we hear of in the married life.  Women are much mistaken if they think it’s by dressing themselves they are to please their husbands.”