"The rule you quote from your cookery book is quite correct for large joints, but it does not do for small ones. If you put a big joint into a hot oven, it crisps the outside nicely, but a small joint put into the same temperature will soon become hard right through. Put small joints in a gentle oven and cook them slowly, basting often. Shortly before you serve it, let the oven get hot or else finish it before the fire, so that it may brown. Of course, the oven must not be too slow or the meat will not cook at all. This point you will gradually learn, and so will your new cook if she is intelligent. I am glad you allude to her as a 'girl.' A young person is, as a rule, more teachable, although an older person will probably know more. As Dr. Johnson remarked of Scotchmen, 'Much may be done with them if you catch them young.' When you engage your new cook, just say that you are in the habit of cooking occasionally—mention it as a matter of course. Do not start by being afraid of her. It is really most absurd.

"With regard to the pastry. You do not seem to have made it quite rightly, as it should not stick to the board. You made it too wet, and your oven cannot have been hot enough if the dripping ran out. Pastry should go into a hot oven, then the starch grains in the flour burst and enclose the particles of dripping; but if the oven is not hot enough, the reverse happens; that is to say, the dripping melts and encloses the starch grains so that they cannot burst. Try again.

"I am wondering if it would help you to see a list of our dinners for the week; I send one in case it may be of use and also my food bill. The quantities will seem very small to you, but you must remember we have no 'downstairs' to consider. Our girl only comes for a few hours each day. This makes a great difference in our expenses. In fact, if we did not make this arrangement, I do not think we could continue our present mode of living. Now, do not worry. If you are so anxious to have everything nice you will succeed in time, and if your mother-in-law is so kind and so fond of you, I am sure she will not pity her son too much, even if your cook does make one or two failures. Could you not get her to postpone her visit until you are a little more settled.

"Here is the dinner list—

Sunday.

Monday.

Tuesday.