'Thank you, Mrs. Poulter, but will you please give me a piece of
fat?'

Mrs. Poulter, scowling, placed a minute portion of hard, half-burnt
skin on Mrs. Mudge's plate.

'Much obliged, Mrs. Poulter, but I want a piece of FAT--white fat--
just there,' pointing to it with her fork.

Mrs. Poulter, as we have said, was at enmity with Mrs. Mudge. Mrs.
Mudge also was Low Church; and Mrs. Poulter was High. She had just
returned from a High Church service at St. Paul's, and the demand
for an undue share of fat was particularly irritating.

'Really, Mrs. Mudge, you forget that there is hardly enough to go
round. For my part, though, I care nothing about it.'

'If I had thought you did, Mrs. Poulter, I am sure I should not have
dared to ask for it.'

'I believe,' said Miss Taggart, 'that the office of fat in diet is
to preserve heat.'

'If fat promotes heat,' said Miss Everard, 'and I have no doubt it
is so, considering Miss Taggart's physiological knowledge, my advice
is that we abstain from it.'

'It is a pity,' said Mr. Goacher, smiling, 'that animals will not
suit our requirements. But to be practical, Miss Toller might be
instructed to order legs of mutton with more fat. This reminds me