A COUNTESS CONVERTED. 23 



apprehensive of stomachic indisposition or mental irrita- 

 tion.) The dish was most successful ; everybody ate 

 of it even a priest from Calais, who said he had no 

 appetite. The countess was helped twice. 



" Next day at the family breakfast I announced that, 

 being desirous to make them acquainted with horse- 

 flesh, I had brought a piece, which was to be served 

 up like beef d la mode. At this moment a piece of beef 

 was brought in. The countess, not finding the pre- 

 tended horse very appetising, would not at first touch 

 it ; but at my entreaties she took a little bit, which she 

 thought hard, disagreeable, bad, and ordered away with 

 a gesture of disgust. 



" ' Nevertheless/ said I, ' it seems to me there is not 

 much difference betwixt this horse d la mode and the 

 beef d la mode which we had at dinner yesterday/ 



"'Nonsense/ said she; 'yourrjorse is not so good as 

 the beef/ 'And I/ added a lady from Paris, 'think 

 that the beef at dinner was much better and more ten- 

 der than your horse/ These positive assertions being 

 enough for my case, I told them of the substitution 

 which had been made, in order to convince them that 

 there was nothing against horse-flesh but silly preju- 

 dice. At this revelation all the guests burst out 

 a-laughing, but the substitution appeared so incredible 

 that the cook had to give his testimony in order to 

 remove every doubt. 



" 'Now/ said the countess, ' that I certainly know the 

 good quality of horse-flesh, I shall have some of it 

 served up at my next dinner-party/ ' And I/ added 

 the lady from Paris, ' when I go back, I shall give it 

 to my best friends to eat/ " 



M. Decroix is much too knowing to carry on the 

 war against prejudice merely by the light arms of a 

 practical joke : he attacks it seriously with the heavy 

 artillery of facts and reasonings systematically arranged. 

 As the most recent exposition of the views on public 

 alimentation zealously being propagated in France, we 



