I do not think there was anything personal in this; he recommended the
lobster because lobster was the most expensive thing he had in stock.
If he could have thought of anything more expensive than lobster he
would have recommended that.
I always refused--not that I harbour any grudge against lobsters as a
class, but because I object to being dictated to by a buccaneer with
flat feet, who wears a soiled dickey instead of a shirt, and who is
only waiting for a chance to overcharge me or short-change me, or give
me bad money, or something. If every other form of provender had
failed them the populace of Paris could have subsisted very
comfortably for several days on the lobsters I refused to buy in the
course of the spring and summer of last year. I'm sure of it.
And when I had firmly, emphatically, yea, ofttimes passionately
declined the proffered lobster, he, having with difficulty mastered
his chagrin, would seek to direct my attention to the salmon, his
motive for this change in tactics being that salmon, though apparently
plentiful, was generally the second most expensive item upon the
regular menu.
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