The meats had been removed and Pompey was serving the pastry and comfits.
“What delicious cheese you have. It is as toothsome as the finest Cheshire,” said Lord Upperton.
“We think it of excellent flavor, and I am sure you will relish it all the more when I inform you, my lord, that it was made by a girl not older than myself,” replied Ruth.
“Indeed! is it possible? How very clever she must be.”
“She is a New Hampshire lady.”
“Are dairymaids ladies?”
“Indeed they are, my lord. The young lady who made the cheese you are eating, I dare say, would adorn the court of our queen,” responded Mr. Adams.
“Bless me! oysters, cranberries, succotash, canvasback ducks, wild turkeys, pumpkin pie, dairymaids ladies, wives the equals of their husbands! Rector, will there be anything beyond these in the New Jerusalem?” exclaimed Lord Upperton.
Dinner over, the ladies passed into the parlor while the gentlemen smoked their pipes and finished their wine.