SAVOURY POTTAGE 



mon prince ! Mais, bernique ! ny en a plus ! "she added, 

 laughing complacently and tossing her head in the direction 

 of a second cauldron that lay empty on her left, 

 The more luxurious cheese pottage being " off/' and time 

 of importance <it would, volunteered the culinary Madame 

 Angot, take ten minutes to prepare the next potful) the 

 famished wanderer proffered his penny and received his 

 grateful bowl together with some eight inches of "long 

 bread " in lieu of his half-denier change. And, leaning 

 against a pillar, he set himself to the enjoyment of what, 

 as I have remarked before, was the best breakfast of his 

 life. 



Hunger is the finest of all possible saucesa truism even 

 more than a proverb. The snatched crust, the draught 

 of clear water in the palm of the hand, at some dire moment 

 of want, is more welcome than the most cunning dish, the 

 rarest cup in the easy tenor of life. But the plain bread 

 and the clear water, however eagerly seized, must ever 

 savour of hardship. Now this halfpenny worth of soupe a 

 roignon bore none of that character, for all that, as far as 

 nutriment went, it consisted of naught but bread and 

 water. It had all the attributes of a civilized meal : it was 

 hot, savoury, immediately comforting. 

 As I disposed of it at leisurefor it was scalding, and 

 had, besides, in an Epicurean way, to be husbanded 

 as a relish to my portion of simple loaf I watched the 

 rotund but brisk dame prepare another instalment of the 

 superior, or penny, brew against the next influx of cus- 

 tomers. The first clientele <it appeared in course of friendly 



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