To the other sauce she stirred the contents of a box of chicken also chopped fine, and a large table-spoonful of the mayonnaise, which was made rather more tart than usual, and this also was seasoned highly and a tea-spoonful of capers stirred through it. Both the lobster and chicken were put away till time to cut sandwiches. The dinner was to be oysters on the half shell and stewed steak, as being easy and _British_. The recipe was given to Marta, who, with a little looking after, could prepare it. It was as follows:— Put a table-spoonful of butter in a stew-pan; when hot lay in a pound and a half of the tender side of round steak floured, having removed nearly all fat. Let it quickly brown with one onion, cut in slices; then put to it a pint of boiling water. Draw it to the side of the fire, where it will just simmer for two hours and a half; then take the meat up on a hot dish, and skim the gravy clear of fat; stir into it a dessert-spoonful of brown thickening (see recipe, Chapter XIII.), and a half can of mushrooms, with the liquor. Let this boil fast till there is about half a pint; season with pepper and salt, take off the little skin of grease that fast boiling has sent to the surface, draw it back from the fire, and lay the steak in again; let it all just _keep at the boiling-point_, not boil, for a quarter of an hour. Harry was to come home at five to get dinner over, and by way of a sweet dish they were to have omelette soufflé, or as Harry called it, _hot_ ice cream; it was quickly made and required no sauce. After luncheon, as there was nothing more to be done till the _consommé_ was ready to clear, Molly and her friend went out to walk. At half a mile distance there was a spot where Molly had remarked the lovely ferns and moss; they took a basket to bring some home to dress the rooms, and as there were few flowers, they gathered the white plumes of the wild carrot. “I think we will resist the golden-rod, graceful as it is; every room in Greenfield has a bunch of it, no doubt.” When in the house two ginger-jars were filled with the ferns and tall white blossoms; from one, long sprays of honeysuckle from their own piazza were trailing, and this was put on the little stand in the hall. The other jar was put in the fireplace in the parlor. About the rooms tufts of bright red geraniums were set in specimen glasses. “I think that looks quite festive,” said Mrs. Welles, surveying the effect. “Will you have autumn leaves for the buffet?” “I confess I don’t like them in rooms, beautiful as they are on trees; I thought of filling those tall jars with these ferns and putting single sprays of them in tall champagne glasses between the dishes of sandwiches.” “That will be prettier.”