The footman handed round refreshments.
"Won't you take a cup of tea, pastor, before we begin?" asked the hostess, smarting under the unpleasantness of a small disappointment.
The pastor glanced at the tray.
"Thank you, no; I'll take a glass of punch, if I may. I've made it a rule, ladies, never to differ from my fellow-creatures in externals. Everybody drinks punch; I don't like it, but I don't want the world to say that I'm better than anybody else; boasting is a failing which I detest. May I now begin with the proceedings?"
He sat down at the writing-table, dipped the pen into the ink and read:
"'Account of the Presents received by the Administrative Committee of the Crèche "Bethlehem" during the month of May: Signed Eugenia Falk.'"
"Née, if I may ask?"
"Oh, never mind about that," said Mrs. Falk.
"Evelyn Homan."
"Née, if I may make so bold?"