"The weak point of this world, Miss Sylvie," said Dr. Maverick. "When women learn to make good bread and cook potatoes, there will be a decrease of one-half in dyspepsia. Now, what is the secret of the potatoes? Come, air your ideas! Give me a recipe, and I will take it around among my patients. I advise them pretty generally to bake them, but I find some soggy and watery even then." "Overdone," said Miss Morgan briefly. "Well, state the exact time." The women looked at each other, and laughed. "From twenty minutes to half an hour," said Mrs. Darcy. "Some kinds boil easier than others. For baking, three-quarters to an hour." "But the infallible test?" "Watchfulness," said Jane. "I must admit that you seem to understand it thoroughly, judging from the specimens I have seen and eaten. But are you not a little chary in your information?" and he glanced from one to another. "Miss Morgan shall be first spokeswoman," declared Sylvie gayly. "If it is a boiled potato," began Jane sententiously, as if she were a child speaking a piece, "I put mine in the saucepan, and pour hot water over them, as they come to a boil sooner, taking care that they shall be as nearly of a size as possible. In about twenty minutes I try an average potato. If I can stick a fork through it nicely, it is done. Then I pour off the water, letting it drain until every drop is gone, when I shake up the lot two or three times rather hard and quick, stand them on the back of the stove with the cover partly off, so that the steam may escape; and you have a dry, light, flaky potato, unless it was irremediably bad to begin with. I have sometimes boiled new and rather small potatoes in twelve minutes over a good fire. But cooking, like liberty, has the same high price, eternal vigilance." Maverick laughed. "I shall remember this," he exclaimed. "You will yet hear of me teaching some of my poor patients to cook potatoes. Heaven knows there is enough need of it. Wasn't there some talk of a school for useful arts?" "Yes," answered Sylvie, "only there was no money to start with, and we have all been so busy." "What would be needed?" "_Imprimis_: a room, a cooking-stove, a fire, a cook, and some materials," replied Sylvie with merry audacity. How pretty and bright she was! He liked to watch her in these changeful moods. One great charm of this place was finding her here so frequently. "And Mr. Darcy has been so much engrossed with weightier matters," she continued in a half apology.