This was the manner of it.

We were without servants.

My readers must not suppose that such was our chronic condition, but when you come to change your servants three or four times a year, and have to "do" for yourself each time during the week which must elapse before the arrival of new ones, there is an ample margin for every possible domestic misadventure.

If any doubt me, let them try for themselves.
On this special occasion, which proved to be nearly the last, my mind was easy, for the simple reason that I was now independent of cookery books.

I had puzzled out all the elementary parts of the science for myself, and had no misgivings on the subject of potatoes or even peas.
So confident was I, and vain, that I volunteered to make a curry for breakfast.