"Most appropriate," said Miss Macdonnell, "especially as it owes
its origin to an outbreak of plague--the plague in the kitchen."



The First Day

On the Tuesday morning the Marchesa travelled down to the
"Laurestinas," where she found that Mrs. Fothergill had been as
good as her word. Everything was in perfect order. The Marchesa
had notified to her pupils that they must report themselves that
same evening at dinner, and she took down with her her maid, one of
those marvellous Italian servants who combine fidelity with
efficiency in a degree strange to the denizens of more progressive
lands. Now, with Angelina's assistance, she proposed to set before
the company their first dinner all'Italiana, and the last they
would taste without having participated in the preparation. The
real work was to begin the following morning.

The dinner was both a revelation and a surprise to the majority of
the company. All were well travelled, and all had eaten of the
mongrel French dishes given at the "Grand" hotels of the principal
Italian cities, and some of them, in search of adventures, had
dined at London restaurants with Italian names over the doors,
where--with certain honourable exceptions--the cookery was
French, and not of the best, certain Italian plates being included
in the carte for a regular clientele, dishes which would always be
passed over by the English investigator, because he now read, or
tried to read, their names for the first time. Few of the