Does “seated after a meal…” mean "they sat to eat food in a beautiful pillared room " or does it mean “they sat {in a beautiful pillared room} after they had eaten their food”?
She remembered now that Lasaraleen had always been like that, interested in clothes and parties and gossip. Aravis had always been more interested in bows and arrows and horses and dogs and swimming. You will guess that each thought the other silly. But when at last they were both seated after a meal (it was chiefly of the whipped cream and jelly and fruit and ice sort) in a beautiful pillared room (which Aravis would have liked better if Lasaraleen’s spoiled pet monkey hadn’t been climbing about it all the time) Lasaraleen at last asked her why she was running away from home.
Maybe it’s becomes clear from my re-written version below.
She remembered now that Lasaraleen had always been like that, interested in clothes, parties, and gossip. Aravis had always been more interested in bows and arrows, horses, dogs, and swimming. You can imagine that each thought the other was silly. But finally, after a meal (which consisted mostly of whipped cream, jelly, fruit, and ice cream), when they were both sitting in a beautiful columned hall (which Aravis would have liked even better if Lasaraleen’s spoiled pet monkey hadn’t kept climbing all over it), Lasaraleen finally asked her why she had run away from home.
