And so with everything else of a substantial kind.

On this head the hostess felt no anxieties.
But a 'tea' in the north-country depends for distinction, not on its solids or its savories, but on its sweets.

A rural hostess earns her reputation, not by a discriminating eye for butcher's-meat, but by her inventiveness in cakes and custards.

And it was just here, with regard to this 'bubble reputation,' that the vicar's wife of Long Whindale was particularly sensitive.

Was she not expecting Mrs.Seaton, the wife of the Rector of Whinborough--odious woman--to tea?
Was it not incumbent on her to do well, nay to do brilliantly, in the eyes of this local magnate?
And how was it possible to do brilliantly in this matter with a cook whose recipes were hopelessly old-fashioned, and who had an exasperating belief in the sufficiency of buttered 'whigs' and home-made marmalade for all requirements?
Stung by these thoughts, Mrs.Thornburgh had gone prowling about the neighboring town of Whinborough till the shop window of a certain newly arrived confectioner had been revealed to her, stored with the most airy and appetizing trifles--of a make and coloring quite metropolitan.