[Illustration: 228]
WHAT fun it is playing at dinner parties! You can have a very plain
dinner or a very elaborate one, just as you like. You can manage it with
nothing at all. Only you have to pretend a great deal then.
Thérèse and her little sister Pauline have asked Pierre and Marthe to
a dinner in the country. Proper invitations have been issued, and they
have been talking about it for days. Mamma has given her two little
girls good advice--and good things to eat, too. There will be nougat
and sweet cakes, and a chocolate cream. The table will be laid in the
arbour.
“If only it will be fine!” cries Thérèse, who is nine now. At her age
one knows the fondest hopes are often disappointed in this world and you
cannot always do what you propose. But little Pauline has none of these
worries. She cannot think it will be wet. It will be fine, because she
wants it to.
And lo! the great day has broken clear and sunny. Not a cloud in the
sky. The two guests have come. How fortunate! For this was another
subject of anxiety for Thérèse. Marthe had caught a cold, and perhaps
she would not be better in time. As for little Pierre, everybody knows
he always misses the train. You cannot blame him for it. It is
his misfortune, not his fault. His mother is unpunctual by nature.
Everywhere and always little Pierre arrives after everybody else; he has
never in his life seen the beginning of anything. This has given him a
dull, resigned look.
The dinner is served; ladies and gentlemen, take your places! Thérèse
presides. She is thoughtful and serious; the housewifely instinct is
awaking in her bosom. Pierre carves valiantly. Nose in the dish and
elbows above his head, he struggles to divide the leg of a chicken. Why,
his feet even take their part in the tremendous effort. Mademoiselle
Marthe eats elegantly, without any ado or any noise, just like a
grown-up lady. Pauline is not so particular; she eats how she can and as
much as she can.
Thérèse, now serving her guests, now one of them herself, is content;
and contentment is better than joy. The little dog Gyp has come to eat
up the scraps, and Thérèse thinks, as she watches him crunching the
bones, that dogs know nothing of all the dainty ways that make grown-up
dinners, and children’s too, so refined and delightful.