ndeed it would be most ungracious to look a gift-dinner in
the--What are you laughing at, Sir John? I suppose I've done something
awful with my metaphors--mixed them up somehow."

"Everything Mrs. Wilding mixes will be mixed admirably, as admirably,
say, as that sauce which was served with the Manzo alla Certosina," Sir
John replied.

"That is said in your best style, Sir John," replied Mrs. Wilding; "but
what I was going to remark was, that I, as a poor parson's wife, shall
ask for some instruction in inexpensive cooking before we separate.
The dinner we have just eaten is surely only within the reach of rich
people."

"I wish some of the rich people I dine with could manage now and then to
reach a dinner as good," said the Colonel.

"I believe it is a generally received maxim, that if you want a truth
to be accepted you must repeat the same in season and out, whenever you
have the opportunity," said the Marchesa. "The particular truth I have
now in mind is the fact that Italian cookery is the cookery of a poor
nation, of people who have scant means wherewith to purchase the very
inferior materials they must needs work with; and that they produce
palatable food at all is, I maintain, a proof that they bring high
intelligence to the task. Italian culinary methods have been developed
in the struggle when the cook, working with an allowance upon which an
English cook would resign at once, has succeeded by careful manipulation
and the study of flavouring in turning out excellent dishes made of fish
and meat confessedly inferior. Now, if we loosen the purse-strings
a little, and use the best English materials, I affirm that we shall
achieve a result excellent enough to prove that Italian cookery is
worthy to take its stand beside its great French rival. I am glad Mrs.
Wilding has given me an opportunity to impress upon you all that its
main characteristics are simplicity and cheapness, and I can assure her
that, even if she should reproduce the most costly dishes of our course,
she will not find any serious increase in her weekly bills. When I use
the word simplicity, I allude, of course, to everyday cooking. Dishes of
luxury in any school require elaboration, care, and watchfulness."

Menu--Dinner {*}

Zuppa d'uova alla Toscana. Tuscan egg-soup.
Sogliole alla Livornese. Sole alla Livornese.
Manzo alla Certosina. Fillet of beef, Certosina sauce.
Minuta alla Milanese. Chickens