Guedalyah the Greengrocer glowered at him.
'I am very sorry, gentlemen, I have not been able to satisfy you,' said Raphael; 'but in a first number one can't do much.'
'Can't they?' said De Haan. 'You've done so much damage to orthodoxy that we don't know whether to go on with the paper.'
'You're joking,' murmured Raphael.
'I wish I was,' laughed De Haan bitterly.
'But you astonish me,' persisted Raphael. 'Would you be so good as to point out where I have gone wrong?'
'With pleasure, or rather with pain,' said De Haan.
Each of the committee drew a tattered copy from his pocket, and followed De Haan's demonstration with a murmured accompaniment of lamentation.
'The paper was founded to inculcate the inspection of cheese, the better supervision of the sale of meat, the construction of ladies' baths, and all the principles of true Judaism,' said De Haan gloomily. 'And there's not one word about these things, but a great deal about spirituality and the significance of the ritual. But I will begin at the beginning. Page 1.'
'But that's advertisements,' muttered Raphael.