Pater. (taking up his paper again). Send it.
Mater. My dear John, do attend. I want to know what I shall put into the envelope.
Pater. (giving up paper, and examining Christmas Cards with some vague show of interest). Oh, well—here. (Casually picking up a picture of a country churchyard by moonlight). Won't this be the sort of thing?
Mater. (shocked). How can you, John! Don't you know that Mrs. Brown lost her husband only a year ago?
Pater. Then why are you wishing her "A Merry Christmas"?
Mater. Well, you see she has married again, and so I thought of sending her something with "A Happy New Year" in it.
Pater. (taking up a card showing an owl in an ivy bush). Why not this?
Mater. Well that would be better, but then she might think that the owl was intended for a sneer at her second husband. And then I always like to keep the happy new year cards till Christmas is over, as you can send them afterwards to the people who have remembered you when you have forgotten them.
Pater. But you wouldn't have "A Merry Christmas," and now you object to "A Happy New Year." What do you want?
Mater. Can't you get something impersonal?