There they would be seated, her grandmother, her Aunt Harriet, and her Aunt Jane.

Aunt Harriet behind the silver tea service; Aunt Jane behind the cut glass bowl of preserves; her grandmother behind the silver butter dish, and on the table would be the hot biscuits cooling, the omelet falling, the tea drawing too long and all because of her.

There was tremendous etiquette in the Eustace family.

Not a cup of tea would Aunt Harriet pour, not a spoon would Aunt Jane dip into the preserves, not a butter ball would her grandmother impale upon the little silver fork.

And poor Hannah, the maid, white aproned and capped, would stand behind Aunt Harriet like a miserable conscious graven image.