Eva and Muriel devised, while the kiddies were perfectly sure it was the most splendid idea in the world, all the family aunts had thrown up hands and eyes in horror, all the family uncles had loudly disapproved, all the cousins had deplored, criticised, and ridiculed, and most other people had cheerfully predicted failure.
"Such a stoopid thing to do," Aunt Jane Fisher had told them. "You are sure to lose your money, and there you'll be penniless on my hands, I suppose. But I warn you beforehand, I shall do nothing for you whatever. I've too many claims on my purse as it is."
Mrs. Fisher lived in Chester Square, had three thousand a year, and, as she said, many claims, which took the shape of two fat carriage horses, a fat coachman, a fat poodle, and a still fatter pug.
"Never heard of such a preposterous idea in my life!" fumed Uncle Bentley. "Louisa must be out of her mind to let the girls do such a thing. They might as well chuck their money into the Thames; while if they would invest it in Consols they would get close on forty pounds a year apiece, and what more can a single woman need?"
An old bachelor like Colonel Bentley, of course, needed a great deal more, since he lived at Walsingham House, paid the subscription of three clubs, and smoked more than twenty shillings' worth of cigars in the course of a week.
"So low! Why, it's keeping a shop!" cried one of the Eltham girls; their father was a dean, but their mother was Mrs. Stanley's sister.
"Well, when Tom hears of this he will have nothing to do with Eva, I am sure," declared the other.
Tom Eltham was still with the Yeomanry in South Africa, but before he went out had spent a great deal more time than his sisters approved of down in Sussex with the Stanleys.
Willie Rhodes, the Harrow boy, however, was understood to have said he was jolly glad those plucky little Stanley girls were opening a grub-shop, and of course he would patronize them, and take the other chaps there, and no doubt, as long as he was their cousin, they would give him a long tick.
His was the only approval they received, and it did really require a great deal of courage to persevere under the dribbling of so much cold water, and to believe in their ultimate success.
But they were really plucky little girls, as Rhodes major said, and very devoted to each other, so that when Eva's high spirits momentarily failed her, Muriel would turn all her gaiety to the task of reviving them again, and vice versa.
"Do you think that we have enough of everything?" said Muriel, the night before opening day. "It would be simply awful if we ran short."
Eva counted over the fowls, the tongues, the hams ready cooked, the loaves of bread, the pounds of butter, the dozens of lettuces, the cucumbers, the cream cheeses, the jars of jam, the cakes, and the biscuits with which they had stored their larder against the great event.
"Let me see," she said, "how many may we expect for luncheon? Town is very full; there are thousands and thousands of foreigners, and Americans, and Colonials over, who all must be fed. Still, we'll be modest, and not count on too many. Suppose we say twenty for luncheon?"
"Yes, twenty for luncheon at five shillings each. That makes five pounds, doesn't it?" murmured Muriel, working out the intricate sum with pencil and paper. "Now for tea we might reckon on a good many more. Lots of people who don't have luncheon can't do without tea. Let's say sixty teas at half a crown, which makes—makes—oh, what on earth does it make, Evy?"
It was delightful to find that it actually made twelve pounds ten, and then, reckoning on twenty people again for dinner, the girls found the takings of the day total twenty-seven pounds.
June the 25th would certainly bring more customers still. They thought they might reckon the takings of that day at about thirty pounds. And if Coronation Day itself did not augment the numbers, it was at least reasonable to suppose these would not decline. So they put down the rest of the week at the low figure of twenty pounds a day. Say, just for the sake of round numbers, one hundred and forty pounds for the five days from Tuesday till Saturday inclusive. And after that an average of fifty pounds a week for the rest of the year. Very good interest surely on two thousand pounds! Eva and Muriel were so enchanted with their arithmetic that they waltzed round the empty rooms and kissed each other ecstatically.
When the great morning arrived, the morning of the 24th, they dressed themselves in the dainty pale grey frocks which had been made for them from Eva's designs, put on
