Chapter 13: The Dinner Party Trial and Seraphine's Perfect Performance

The Dinner Party Trial's official brief, distributed the morning of the event on cream card stock with the Grand Ascension seal embossed in gold that caught the light and demanded one notice it, described the trial's objective in the following terms: *each tribute will demonstrate, through the hosting of a formal seven-course table, proficiency in the arts of conversation, guest management, table composition, and social grace under observation.* The card measured four inches by six. The trial, Honoria calculated, would last approximately four hours. This was the Court's characteristic generosity: a great deal of event compressed into very little warning, so that one's preparation, however thorough, would always arrive slightly breathless.

She had, of course, begun preparing the previous Tuesday.

The preparation had involved re-reading the relevant chapters of Corston's guide, three of Lady Morrow's annotated dinner party commentaries from her own extensive social archive, and a forty-minute session that Wednesday morning during which Lady Morrow had explained, with the focused pleasure of someone finally arriving at a subject they have been anticipating, that the Dinner Party Trial contained a criterion not listed on the cream card.