for the next month, and I would much rather be learning cookery
under the Marchesa than staying with my brother-in-law at Ealing."

"You'll have to do it, Marchesa," said Van der Roet; "when a new
idea catches on like this, there's no resisting it."

"Well, I consent on one condition--that my rule shall be absolute,"
said the Marchesa, "and I begin my career as an autocrat by giving
Mrs. Fothergill a list of the educational machinery I shall want,
and commanding her to have them all ready by Tuesday morning, the
day on which I declare the school open."

A chorus of applause went up as soon as the Marchesa ceased
speaking.

"Everything shall be ready," said Mrs. Fothergill, radiant with
delight that her offer had been accepted, "and I will put in a full
staff of servants selected from our three other establishments."

"Would it not be as well to send the cook home for a holiday?" said
the Colonel. "It might be safer, and lead to less broth being
spoilt."

"It seems," said Sir John, "that we shall be ten in number, and I
would therefore propose that, after an illustrious precedent, we
limit our operations to ten days. Then if we each produce one
culinary poem a day we shall, at the end of our time, have provided
the world with a hundred new reasons for enjoying life, supposing,
of course, that we have no failures. I propose, therefore, that
our society be called the 'New Decameron.'"