In the room, she got the big stew-pan of her cupboard and began to look for potatoes and onions to put in it. There were none. Now, what sort of a beef stew can you make with just beef? You can make coffe cake without coffee, but you can't make beef stew without potatoes and oinons. But beef alone is better than nothing. With salt and a little flour it can be very good. Hetty took the stew-pan to the third-floor landing. The advertisement of 'Vallambrosa' said there was running water there. That is, there was a tap and a basin where the Vallambrosans washed their dishes. At this basin Hetty found a girl with gold-brown hair and sad eyes. She was washing two large potatoes. Hetty knew her. She was a miniature painter who lived on the top floor. Hetty was not sure what a miniature was, but it certainly wasn't a house, because house-painters always seemed to have plenty to eat. The potato girl was holding a potato in the way that an old, unmarried uncle holds a crying baby. She had a blunt knife in her right hand, and she had began to peel a potato with it. 'Excuse me ,' said Hetty, 'if you peel those potatoes you lose all the goodness. You need to scrape them.