ught us?" returned Dora
doubtfully.

"We're to have 'soups and broths' at the next lesson," said Mabel.

"We can't wait for the next lesson!" urged Aldred. "I'll undertake the
soup, and you can do the stew. I might make some bread sauce as well."

"But no one ever takes bread sauce with stewed mutton!"

"Why shouldn't they? It will be a novelty. I believe they have it in
Germany. It will make an extra dish on the table, at any rate. We want
to give Miss Drummond a good spread."

Mabel and Dora demurred, but Aldred was so insistent that in the end
they agreed to let her include both the soup and the bread sauce.

"But you'll have to be answerable for them," maintained Dora, "because
we haven't learnt to make either, and we wanted to practise what we
really know to-day, not to try too many fresh experiments."

"Oh, I'll take the responsibility!" declared Aldred lightly. "We shall
have a splendid dinner now. We'll pick a few apples, and those big
yellow plums, for dessert."

"We'd better write a menu, if we've so many courses," said Mabel.

"A good idea! We'll put it in French; it will just delight Mademoiselle.
What a pity we didn't think of it sooner, and we'd have painted a lovely
card on purpose! I suppose there wouldn't be time now, if I ran and
fetched my paint-box?"

"Aldred! With all this cooking still to be done! We haven't even put
away the breakfast things yet!"

"Well, the kettle's just singing; we'll wait till it boils. Have you a
pencil, Dora, and a scrap of paper?"

The list of dishes looked quite imposing and elegant, when written in a
foreign language. Aldred regarded it with pride, and copied it in her
best handwriting:

MENU.

Potage aux Herbes.
Cotelettes de Mouton aux Legumes.
Sauce Anglaise.
Pommes de Terre au Naturel.
Haricots Verts.
Blancmange.
Pate de Prunes.
Fromage.
Dessert.
Cafe.

"But why have you called the bread sauce _Sauce Anglaise_?" asked Mabel.

"I didn't know what to put. _Sauce de pain_ doesn't sound quite right,
somehow; and don't you remember some old Frenchman--was it
Voltaire?--said the English were a nation of forty religions, and only
one sauce? It's always supposed to be bread sauce, so I think _Sauce
Anglaise_ is a very good name for it."

The kettle by this time had boiled over, which necessitated a careful
w