I say, grandpapa, if you've lots of money, you will know everything at once without learning it, won't you ?" The old man looked around him triumphantly.
"Now that I call genius, wit!" cried he.
And with that he tenderly pressed the little urchin's head to his breast and murmured: "Ah! he is my very grandson, my own flesh and blood." He was well aware how aggravated all the others would be at these words.
Meanwhile the footman was laying a table.

This table was of palisander wood and supported by the semblance of a swan.

It could be placed close beside the ottoman and was filled with twelve different kinds of dishes.
All these meats were cold, for the doctor forbade his patient hot food.
The old gentleman tasted each one of the dishes with the aid of his finger-tips, and not one of them pleased him.

This was too salt, that was too sweet, a third was burnt, a fourth was tainted.

He threatened to discharge the cook, and bitterly complained that as he did not die quickly enough for them, they were conspiring to starve him.