"A good cook is quite beyond my means, you know," she said plaintively.
Mrs. Brenton tried hard not to laugh as she remembered the dainty fare Camilla's cook usually provided.
She made the best of everything, but Mrs. Horace Lancing, who was very hungry, looked annoyed.
"I never have cheap food," she observed, "it is not an economy."
At this Camilla opened her eyes.
"Do you really think that?" she asked; "and I am always trying to be so very cheap."
Conversation lagged. Betty at the lower end of the table, had a good deal to say to Caroline, but it was all said in whispers.
When, however, the suet pudding with treacle had made its round the child demanded some dessert, and her mother, forgetful for the moment, gave her permission to carry round a silver basket from the sideboard, in which grapes and pears and other delightful fruits were clustered together in picturesque fashion.
"She is learning to be useful, you see, Violet," Camilla observed plaintively.
But Mrs. Horace Lancing was looking at the dessert through her blue-tinted glasses.