On the great,momentous,stupendous day of the dinner,my beloved female reader may imagine that Fitzroy Timmins was sent about his business at an early hour in the morning,while the women began to make preparations to receive their guests."There will be no need of your going to Fubsby's,"Mrs.Gashleigh said to him,with a look that drove him out of doors."Everything that we require has been ordered THERE!You will please to be back here at six o'clock,and not sooner:and I presume you will acquiesce in my arrangements about the WINE?""O yes,mamma,"said the prostrate son-in-law.
"In so large a party--a party beyond some folks MEANS--expensive WINES are ABSURD.The light sherry at 26s.,the champagne at 42s.;and you are not to go beyond 36s.for the claret and port after dinner.Mind,coffee will be served;and you come up stairs after two rounds of the claret.""Of course,of course,"acquiesced the wretch;and hurried out of the house to his chambers,and to discharge the commissions with which the womankind had intrusted him.
As for Mrs.Gashleigh,you might have heard her bawling over the house the whole day long.That admirable woman was everywhere:in the kitchen until the arrival of Truncheon,before whom she would not retreat without a battle;on the stairs;in Fitzroy's dressing-room;and in Fitzroy minor's nursery,to whom she gave a dose of her own composition,while the nurse was sent out on a pretext to make purchases of garnish for the dishes to be served for the little dinner.Garnish for the dishes!As if the folks at Fubsby's could not garnish dishes better than Gashleigh,with her stupid old-world devices of laurel-leaves,parsley,and cut turnips!Why,there was not a dish served that day that was not covered over with skewers,on which truffles,crayfish,mushrooms,and forced-meat were impaled.When old Gashleigh went down with her barbarian bunches of holly and greens to stick about the meats,even the cook saw their incongruity,and,at Truncheon's orders,flung the whole shrubbery into the dust-house,where,while poking about the premises,you may be sure Mrs.G.saw it.