"To business! Go on!"
The director skipped the preliminary banalities, and plunged right into the heart of the matter.
"Very well, gentlemen, I will cut my speech short!"
"Go on! Go on! Why the devil don't you?"
The hammer fell. "Gentlemen!" There was so much dignity in this brief "Gentlemen" that the assembly immediately remembered their self-respect.
"The Society has been responsible during the year for one hundred and sixty-nine millions."
"Hear! hear!"
"And has received a million and a half in premiums."
"Hear! hear!"
Falk made a hasty calculation and found that if the full receipts in premiums, namely, one million and a half, and the total original capital, one million, were deducted, there remained about one hundred and sixty-six millions for which the society was responsible. He realized what "the ways of Providence" meant.