Placing them on the table, he may then announce to the host that tea is served. The gentlemen join the ladies; and, after a chat of a few minutes over the tea, all of the guests may take their departure. If the attendant is a waiting-maid, and the tea-service rather heavy, she might bring two or three cups filled with tea, and a small sugar-bowl and cream-pitcher, also the cake-basket, on a small salver; and when the cups are passed, return for more.
I do not like the English fashion, which requires the ladies to retire from the table, leaving the gentlemen to drink more wine, and smoke. Enough wine is drunk during dinner. English customs are admirable, generally, and one naturally inclines to adopt them; but in this instance I do not hesitate to condemn and reject a custom in which I see no good, but, on the contrary, a temptation to positive evil. The French reject it; let Americans do the same.
The reason why cooking in America is, as a rule, so inferior is not because American women are less able and apt than the women of France, and not because the American men do not discuss and appreciate the merits of good cooking and the pleasure of entertaining friends at their own table; it is merely because American women seem possessed with the idea that it is not the fashion to know how to cook; that, as an accomplishment, the art of cooking is not as ornamental as that of needle-work or piano-playing. I do not undervalue these last accomplishments. A young lady of _esprit_ should understand them; but she should understand, also, the accomplishment of cooking. A young lady can scarcely have too many accomplishments, for they serve to adorn her home, and are attractive and charming, generally. But of them all--painting, music, fancy work, or foreign language--is there one more fascinating and useful, or one which argues more intelligence in its acquisition, than the accomplishment of cooking?
What would more delight Adolphus than to discover that his pretty _fiancée_, Julia, was an accomplished cook; that with her dainty fingers she could gracefully dash off a creamy omelet, and by miraculous manœuvres could produce to his astonished view a dozen different kaleidoscopic omelets, _aux fines herbes_, _aux huîtres_, _aux petits pois_, _aux tomates_, etc.; and not only that, but scientific croquettes, mysterious soups, delicious salads, marvelous sauces, and the hundred and one savory results of a little artistic skill? Delighted Adolphus--if a sensible man, and such a woman should have no other than a sensible man--would consider this as the _chef-d’œuvre_ of all her accomplishments, as he regarded her the charming assurance of so many future comforts.