"I suppose Miss Anna and I are to be regaled on the same fare." "No, sir, I think not.

I believe Miss Anna and Dawson have contrived some sort of meal for you in the schoolroom.

They have done their best, Mr.Malcolm; but what with committees and deputations and Heaven knows what, my mistress has been driven almost out of her senses.

The maids are in the dining-room now, for there's to be tea and light refreshment; and they've been behindhand too with the plants from Covent Garden, drat them," muttered the old man irritably.

He was a faithful servant, and true to his mistress's interests; but he was growing old, and there were times when he longed to sit quietly under his own fig tree, in the Surrey village where he was born, where meetings and committees were unknown.
"Never mind, Anderson," returned Malcolm pleasantly, "we cannot entertain a Bishop without some degree of fuss and discomfort.