Should you call the cook excitable ?" "I should, sir! Most cooks are excitable.

They say it's the kitchen fire." "Do they?
You can go now.

Don't hurry the cook--I'll wait." He waited, apparently following some new train of thought which highly diverted him.

Ten minutes passed--then a quarter of an hour then another five minutes.

When the servant returned with the dinner, the master's private reflections continued to amuse him: his thin lips were still widening grimly, distended by his formidable smile.
On being carved, the mutton proved to be underdone.