[A Gentleman of France by Stanley Weyman]@TWC D-Link bookA Gentleman of France CHAPTER XII 6/27
But the landlord returning at that moment, he turned to him instead. 'Well!' he said briskly.
'Is it all right ?' 'I am sorry, your honour,' the man answered, reluctantly, and with a very downcast air, 'but the gentlemen beg to be excused.' 'Zounds!' cried my companion roundly.
'They do, do they ?' 'They say they have no more, sir,' the landlord continued, faltering, 'than enough for themselves and a little dog they have with them.' A shout of laughter which issued at that moment from the other room seemed to show that the quartette were making merry over my companion's request.
I saw his cheek redden, and looked for an explosion of anger on his part; but instead he stood a moment in thought in the middle of the floor, and then, much to the innkeeper's relief, pushed a stool towards me, and called for a bottle of the best wine.
He pleasantly begged leave to eat a little of my cheese, which he said looked better than the Lisieux, and, filling my glass with wine, fell to as merrily as if he had never heard of the party in the other room. I was more than a little surprised, I remember; for I had taken him to be a passionate man, and not one to sit down under an affront.
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