Even Mrs. Candy's good eyes found no fault. And breakfast went forward better than Matilda had dared to hope.
"You have done your potatoes too much, Maria," Mrs. Candy remarked.
"Yes, ma'am," Maria said, meekly.
"They want no more but a light colouring. And they should be cut thinner. These are so hard you can't eat them. And, Maria, in future I will tell you what to get for breakfast. I did not know when you went to bed last night, or I should have told you then. You are not old enough to arrange things. Now there was some beef left from dinner yesterday, that would have made a nice hash."
Maria ate bread and butter, and spoke not.
"It will keep very well, and you can make it into hash for to-morrow morning. Chop it as fine as you can, and twice as much potato; and warm it with a little butter and milk and pepper and salt, till it is nice and hot; and poach a few eggs, to lay round it. Can you poach eggs, Maria?"
"Yes, ma'am. But there is no beef, Aunt Erminia."
"No beef? You are mistaken. There was a large piece that we did not eat yesterday."
"There is none now," said Maria.
"It must be down-stairs in the cellar."