“"Are there any holes in these stockings?" Carol turned around, lifting her skirts for inspection. "Well, I'm sorry, I won't have time to change them.--Did they come in the auto? Good!" She was brushing her hair as she talked. "Yes, we had a luncheon, all pie, though. We played tennis this morning; we were intending to come home right along, or we'd have phoned you. We were playing with George Castle and Fritzie Zale.--Is it sticking out any place?" She lowered her head backward for her aunt to see. "Stick a pin in it, will you? Thanks. They dared us to go to the pie counter and see which couple could eat the most pieces of lemon pie, the couple which lost paying for all the pie. It's not like betting, you know, it's a kind of reward of merit, like a Sunday-school prize. No, I won't put on my slippers till the last thing, my heel's sore, my tennis shoe rubbed the skin off. My feet seem to be getting tender. Think it's old age?"”
A cook of roughly the same moment, setting down the same dish.
1 tablespoonful of corn starch. 2 tablespoonfuls powdered sugar. 1/2 saltspoonful of salt. 1 lemon. 1/2 pint of water. 1/2 pint of granulated sugar. 2 eggs. 1/4 the rule for delicate paste. Mix the corn starch with one third of the water, and put the remainder on to boil. Stir the sugar, salt, and corn starch into the boiling water, and cook for one minute, stirring all the time. Take from the fire, and add the juice and the grated yellow rind of the lemon. When cool, add the yolks of the eggs, well beaten. Line a deep plate with the paste and fill with the mixture. Bake in a moderate oven for half an hour. Take from the oven and cool for fifteen minutes. Beat the whites of the eggs to a stiff dry froth, and then beat the powdered sugar into them. Spread this meringue over the pie, and place in the oven. Cook for twelve minutes with the oven door open; then put away to get icy cold.
Sources: The passage is from Ethel Hueston, Prudence Says So, free to read in full at Project Gutenberg. The recipe is from Parloa, Miss Parloa's Young Housekeeper of 1893, also free in full. Both are in the public domain in the United States. The binding above is ours — plum cloth, amphora stamp.