"You were engaged to do as you're told." "There you are mistaken." "Jane-Ellen, you will serve dinner." "Mr. Crane, I will not." The problem of the irresistible force and the immovable body seemed about to be demonstrated. They looked each other steadily and hostilely in the eyes. "We seem," said Crane, "to be dealing with the eternal problem between employer and employee. You're not lazy, the work before you is nothing, but you deliberately choose to stand on your rights, on a purely technical point--" "I do nothing of the kind." "What are you doing then?" "I'm making myself just as disagreeable as I can," answered Jane-Ellen. "Of course, I should have been delighted to do anything for any one who asked me politely. But when a man comes into my kitchen and talks about giving orders, and my doing as I'm told, and serving dinner, why, my answer is, he ought to have thought of his extra guests before he dismissed my brothers--" "Your brothers!" cried Crane. "Do you mean to say that Smithfield is your brother too?" "Well, I didn't mean to tell you," said the cook crossly, "but it happens to be true." From the point of view of the irresistible force, the problem was now completely resolved. "O Jane-Ellen!" he cried, "why in the world didn't you tell me so before?" "I can't see what it has to do with things." "It has everything," he answered. "It makes me see how wrong I have been, how rude. It makes me want to apologize for everything I have said since I came into the kitchen. It makes me ask you most humbly if you won't help me out in the ridiculous situation in which I find myself." "But I don't see why Smithfield's being--" "It would take a long time to explain," answered Burton, "although, I assure you, it can and shall be done. Perhaps this evening, after these tiresome men have gone, you will give me a few minutes. In the meantime, just let me say that I was angry at you, however wrongly, when I came down--" "I'm not sure but that I'm still angry at _you_," said the cook, but she smiled as she said it. "You have every right to be, and no reason," he returned. "And you are going to be an angel and serve dinner, aren't you?" "I said I would if asked politely." "Though how in the world I shall sit still and let you wait on me, I don't see." "Oh," said Jane-Ellen, "if you never have anything harder to do than that, you are very different from most of your sex. And now," she added, "I'd better run upstairs and put two more places at the table, for it's dinner-time already." "If I come back later in the evening, you won't turn me out of the kitchen?" She was already on her way upstairs, but she turned with a smile. "It's your kitchen, sir," she said.