The Treasure dropped in too. He knew Podbury well, and Podbury regarded him as an authority on punch. The liquid was presently placed before us. Podbury showed pleasure when I said what I thought about it; but he did not feel quite contented until he had expert’s opinion.
“Magnificent!” the Treasure presently declared; “why it’s equal to the 1890 brew—you remember.”
Podbury’s eye brightened at this allusion to one of his greatest past triumphs. He tasted the punch himself, and admitted that it certainly seemed “about right.”
"the punch was good."
With a desire to be entertaining, I volunteered a fact or two concerning punch generally. I said:
“Our word ‘punch,’ as you are doubtless aware, is derived from the Hindustani ‘panch’ or Sanskrit ‘panchan’; which mean simply ‘five.’ Punch is a mixture of five ingredients, hence the name.”
Everybody was rather impressed with this apposite remark, excepting Podbury. He answered:
“Yes, that’s so. I’ve known it years and years. You bet what I don’t know about punch isn’t worth knowing.”
This I took to be sheer conceit on the part of Podbury. His successes with punch were making the man egotistical. I did not believe that he had heard of these interesting points before, whatever he said to the contrary. At any rate, they were quite new to his wife and daughters and aunts. So I turned my attention to them, and told them several other things worth knowing. They doubtless retailed my information to Podbury after we had departed. Still the punch was good and cooling, and, with a heart that rises above trifles, I here deliberately bless the man who brewed it. To be thus publicly blessed in print ought to content even Podbury.