"But let us revenue to our lamb chops", what does this phrase mean?
Here's the context:
With the eye of faith, you could have seen the Little Hunchback, Sinbad the Sailor, Fitbad the Tailor, the Beautiful Persian, the one-eyed Calenders, Ali Baba and Forty Robbers on every block, and the Barber and his Six Brothers, and all the old Arabian gang easily.

But let us revenue to our lamb chops.
Old Tom Crowley was a caliph. He had $42,000,000 in preferred stocks and bonds with solid gold edges.

Source: What You Want by O.Henry

Question

"But let us revenue to our lamb chops", what does this phrase mean?
Here's the context:
With the eye of faith, you could have seen the Little Hunchback, Sinbad the Sailor, Fitbad the Tailor, the Beautiful Persian, the one-eyed Calenders, Ali Baba and Forty Robbers on every block, and the Barber and his Six Brothers, and all the old Arabian gang easily.

But let us revenue to our lamb chops.
Old Tom Crowley was a caliph. He had $42,000,000 in preferred stocks and bonds with solid gold edges.

Source: What You Want by O.Henry

Answer

I think he is playing a word game here.

Revenue is what we use refer to as income when used in its proper definition. But the source of the word is from latin. Revenire means to return. And revenue itself comes from the old French word which is the past tense of return.

He is deliberately misusing the word to mean return. I think he is teasing a propensity for authors or orators to use French words in places where a perfectly good English word would do. It was not enough for him to use a French word, he used a French word that has changed meaning in our language.

The joke might have been missed if he had used a modern form of the word and in the proper tense. Revenir would be the correct usage. It is the French infinitive form of the word return.

"Let us return to our lamb chops."

Lamb chops, and I'm totally guessing here, is the meat of the story. He started off talking about Bagdad on the subway and then begins to digress.

So, basically, he is saying:

Let's get back to our story.

I've read this short story and this is my best guess unless someone else can enlighten me.

Answer

Ghadeer,

'Revenue to our lamb chops" is a humorous English rendering of the french expression "revenons à nos moutons."

"Revenons à nous moutons" means "let us get back to the subject." You can find this expression in the Merriam Webster Dictionary.

The French expression revenons à nos moutons is from La Farce de Maître Pathelin, a medieval play written by an unknown author. The eponymous protagonist of this 15th-century comedy deliberately misleads a judge by bringing two cases before him - one relating to sheep and the other to sheets. The judge is very confused and attempts to get back to the case about sheep by repeatedly saying mais revenons à nos moutons. Since then, (mais) revenons à nos moutons has meant "let's get back on track / back to the subject at hand / back on topic."

http://french.about.com/od/vocabulary/a/revenonsanosmoutons.htm

Answer

I guess I would need to read the entire passage.  This appears meaningless to me.  I think it is intended not to make sense, but to sound like it makes sense.