That same afternoon a number of the balked entertainers
foregathered in the Marchesa's drawing-room, the dominant subject
of discourse being the approaching dissolution of London society
from the refusal of one human to cook food for another. Those
present were gathered in two groups. In one the Colonel, in spite
of the recent desertion of his Oriental, was asserting that the
Government should be required to bring over consignments of
perfectly trained Indian cooks, and thus trim the balance between
dining room and kitchen; and to the other Mrs. Gradinger, a gaunt,
ill-dressed lady in spectacles, with a commanding nose and dull,
wispy hair, was proclaiming in a steady metallic voice, that it was
absolutely necessary to double the school rate at once in order to
convert all the girls and some of the boys as well, into perfectly
equipped food-cooking animals; but her audience gradually fell
away, and in an interval of silence the voice of the hostess was
heard giving utterance to a tentative suggestion.
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