Elizabeth has a ready answer. "I should like to practice cooking more, if I may. I fear though Millis gave me as much thorough instruction on the art as she might, my skills are quite more and demand further refinement. And unlike piano practice, it is not something I can simply avoid."

If El Minha was any lesson, it was one in how vital it was that Elizabeth learn what she had always deemed as "servant's work" in her mind.