When the quaint little old man, in his antiquated black suit, a relic of other and better days, entered the room, with the beautiful child, rosy and bareheaded, her yellow hair flying out like spun silk, and her dainty though disordered dress plainly showing her superior position, every eye was turned upon him, and Gex felt the stirrings of old pride and ambition, as he placed a chair with great ceremony, and lifted Lady Jane into it. Then he drew out his spectacles with much dignity, and, taking the card the waiter handed him, waited, pencil poised, for the orders of the young lady.
“If you please,” he said, with a formal bow, and an inviting smile, “to tell me vhat you prefair.”
Lady Jane frowned and bit her lips at the responsibility of deciding so important a matter; at length she said, with sparkling eyes and a charming smile:
“If you please, Mr. Gex, I’ll take some—some ice cream.”
“But first, my leetle lady,—but first, one leetle plat of soup, and the fish with sauce verte, and one leetle bird,—just one leetle bird vith the petit pois—and one fine, good, leetle salad. How vould that suit my leetle lady?”
“And ice cream?” questioned Lady Jane, leaning forward with her little hands clasped primly in her lap.
“And after, yes, one crême à la glace, one cake, and one leetle bunch of raisin, grape you say,” repeated Gex, as he wrote laboriously with his old, stiff fingers. “Now ve vill have one fine leetle dinner, my leetle lady,” he said, with a beaming smile, when he had completed the order.
Lady Jane nodded an affirmative, and while they waited for their dinner her bright eyes traveled over everything; at length they rested on Mr. Gex with unbounded admiration, and she could not refrain from leaning forward and whispering:
“Oh, Mr. Gex, how nice, how lovely you look! Please, Mr. Gex, please don’t wear an apron any more.”
“Vell, if my leetle lady don’t vant me to, vell, I von’t,” replied Gex, beaming with sudden ambition and pride, “and, perhaps, I vill try to be one fine leetle gentleman again, like vhen I vas professeur of the dance.”