From the reception-rooms the sisters adjourned to the dining-room, a big, somewhat gloomy apartment facing the street, very handsome, very severe, and evidently dedicated to one purpose only, and never by any chance entered from the time one meal ended until another began. The butler was arranging dishes on the sideboard, the table was spread with a glittering profusion of glass and silver, and an array of cold dainties, at sight of which Bridgie blushed, and stared at the floor. She waited, trembling, to hear Pixie's exclamation, but none came, and as they adjourned towards the library she slipped her hand through Esmeralda's arm, and said, half laughing, half nervous-- "I don't understand the ways of grand ladies yet, Joan dear! I shall have to get into them by degrees. You wrote that you were coming to open the house, and I imagined you in the same sort of confusion which we were in at Rutland Road, only of course ten times worse, as your house is so big. We thought you would be tired and hungry, and perhaps have nothing to eat but sandwiches or biscuits, and we--we brought some lunch for you and ourselves!" Esmeralda threw back her head and laughed with much enjoyment. "You funny dear, I never heard of anything so quaint! It was sweet of you all the same, and I'm ever so grateful. But, oh dear! what would the servants say if they knew! They would think my relations had come out of the Ark. And where in the world have you put the provisions?" "I--I--" Bridgie looked round for Pixie, but she had lingered behind, and there was no one to help her out of her plight. "I had the basket in my hand, and we were standing at the door, and I heard you calling and I rushed in. I gave it to someone. I was in such a hurry I hardly noticed who it was. I think it was the man in the dining-room now!" "Montgomery!" echoed Esmeralda blankly. She stood staring at Bridgie with horrified eyes. "Bridgie, how _could_ you? What do you mean by it? What did you bring, and how was it made up?" "A chicken, and pies, and apples, and a tin of toffee. Everything you liked--and some little rolls and a pot of butter. They were in a basket--a big basket with a serviette over the top!" cried Bridgie, with desperate candour, determined to tell the worst at once and get it over. At home at Rutland Road it had seemed such a simple and natural thing to do, but ten minutes' experience of Park Lane had shown clearly enough how unnecessary had been her anxiety, how ridiculous it must seem in the estimation of the household! She looked at Esmeralda with troubled eyes, and Esmeralda flushed, and cried testily-- "A basket of provisions, and you handed it to Montgomery! He would think, of course, that it was his duty to open it, and-- Oh, Bridgie, how could you? He will tell the story in the servants' hall, and they will all laugh and make fun. It's too tiresome! I can't think how you can have made such a mistake!"