to attack the lamb--and he found
reason to regret it. Afterwards came fowls stuffed with raisins,
parsley, and crumbled bread, and the banquet ended with pastry of weird
forms and repellent aspect.

"I hope," said Horace, anxiously, "you don't find this Eastern cookery
very--er--unpalatable?"--he himself was feeling distinctly unwell: "it's
rather a change from the ordinary routine."

"I have made a truly wonderful dinner, thank you," replied the
Professor, not, it is to be feared, without intention. "Even in the East
I have eaten nothing approaching this."

"But where did your landlady pick up this extraordinary cooking, my dear
Horace?" said Mrs. Futvoye. "I thought you said she was merely a plain
cook. Has she ever lived in the East?"

"Not exactly _in_ the East," exclaimed Horace; "not what you would call
_living_ there. The fact is," he continued, feeling that he was in
danger of drivelling, and that he had better be as candid as he could,
"this dinner _wasn't_ cooked by her. She--she was obliged to go away
quite suddenly. So the dinner was all sent in by--by a sort of
contractor, you know. He supplies the whole thing, waiters and all."

"I was thinking," said the Professor, "that for a bachelor--an _engaged_
bachelor--you seemed to maintain rather a large establishment."

"Oh, they're only here for the evening, sir," said Horace. "Capital
fellows--more picturesque than the local greengrocer--and they don't
breathe on the top of your head."

"They're perfect dears, Horace," remarked Sylvia; "only--well, just a
_little_ creepy-crawly to look at!"

"It would ill become me to criticise the style and method of our
entertainment," put in the Professor, acidly, "otherwise I might be
tempted to observe that it scarcely showed that regard for economy which
I should have----"

"Now, Anthony," put in his wife, "don't let us have any fault-finding.
I'm sure Horace has done it all delightfully--yes, delightfully; and
even if he _has_ been just a little extravagant, it's not as if he was
obliged to be as economical _now_, you know!"

"My dear," said the Professor, "I have yet to learn that the prospect of
an increased income in the remote future is any justification for
reckless profusion in the present."

"If you only knew," said Horace, "you wouldn't call it profusion.
It--it's not at all the dinner I meant it to be, and I'm afraid it
wasn't particularly nice--but it's certainly not expensive."

"Expensive is,