Mrs. and Mr. Timmins live in the pleasant Lilliput Alley, in one of the most respectable neighborhoods of London. Needless to say, our characters belong to a good family; especially Mrs. Timmins, who grew up in Suffolk and is close to a famous earl. Mrs. Timmins believes that her loving partner, the owner of a (more or less) respectable law firm, is a successful businessman with plenty of money in his pocket. She ends up inviting the best of London's elite to dinner, to prove to herself and others that her modest but beautiful house (with two drawing rooms!) can host the best ball in the city. Can twenty people be seated at a table designed for ten? Should she invite old friends who are not up to her standard? How should she deal with incompetent relatives? Where can she get plates and chairs for everyone? And also servants, cooks, a host... Should she hire the services of professionals? The banal constraints of the Timmins family may seem to be rooted in another era, but their lives and attitudes will immediately remind us of our own lives, those of our acquaintances and neighbors. Prepare yourself – because the little feast is, of course, about to get out of hand. Chesterton claimed that it is impossible to read a single page of Thackeray's work without smiling, and there are undoubtedly a fair number of smiles hidden between the pages of this novella. Good literature, Thackeray proves to us, does not lose its power and charm even if it has been put into words long ago. Here is an old-new story, a classic and always relevant work, offering its readers hours of pleasure.