“Oh, there’s kerosene all over the table—shall I scrub it, miss?” said Rosie, anxiously.
“No,” said the Matron; “just wipe it off with a dry cloth. Now lay the felt and then the table-cloth—so; no, wait, Rosie, get it perfectly straight; _almost_ straight is crooked, you know. There, that will do.”
Marguerite arranged an embroidered centerpiece in place just as Helen came in with a dish of fruit.
[Illustration: “‘THIS IS THE ONLY CORRECT AND ELEGANT WAY TO FILL A SWING-LAMP.’”]
“Set it right here,” said Marguerite; “just the thing for the center of the table. Now, Helen, you finish showing Rosie how to set the table, will you? I promised to help Hester make the Yorkshire pudding.”
But the pudding was already made and browning.
“Oh, I wanted to see you do it,” said the aggrieved Marguerite; “what did you put in?”
“It’s awfully easy,” said Hester, “and yet so few people make it right. I just took a quart of milk—no, I only took part of it at first. Well, first of all I beat two eggs very light, and added a teaspoonful of salt and two tablespoonfuls of flour and about a third of the quart of milk. Then I beat all that to a nice, smooth batter, and added the rest of the milk. Then I turned it into a boiling-hot baking-pan with about three tablespoonfuls of nice beef dripping, and gravy from the roasting joint; now it is nearly cooked, so I add a little more gravy from the joint-pan.”
“Your expressions are so funny, Hester; I never heard of a ‘joint-pan’ before.”
Then Betty invaded the kitchen, and peeped into the soup-kettle, remarking: “I don’t think there’s very much there; I could eat all that myself. What else is there, Hester?”
Hester’s menu seemed small to hungry Betty, and she said so; and Marguerite observed:
“I offered to make a salad, but Hester said no.”
“We’ll do it, all the same,” said Betty. “Hester may rule Britannia if she wants to, but she can’t rule Hilarity Hall. Come on, Daisy; let’s mutiny. As Peeler-in-Chief I’ll peel some tomatoes, and you stir up a mayonnaise.”
“All right,” said Marguerite; “or rather, as Hester is managing this dinner, she can stir while I dump in the things.”
Marguerite was “great on mayonnaise,” and she broke two eggs, daintily separating the whites and yolks, and put the latter in a soup-plate, stirring them round and round with a silver fork. Then she added oil, drop by drop at first, and then a trifle faster as the dressing began to thicken.