“Doesn’t the man know it’s nearly time to dine?” she wondered.
Grove Evans, with a dinner engagement at the club and a place bespoken in a quiet poker game afterward, squirmed in his chair and cursed Wyat Carp silently. Finally, with a last rhetorical flourish, Mr. Carp quite suddenly ended. He sat down amid a murmur of applause.
“Wonderful,” exclaimed Mrs. Ives. She was agreeably astonished that Mr. Carp should ever have finished.
“Very full, concise and to the point,” was Miss Laforth’s verdict.
“Great!” announced Grove Evans, really delighted, for he would be in time for dinner at the club after all.
The Rev. Thomas Brattle gazed about the circle with a bland smile. “I am glad,” he said, “to have my judgment indorsed by such excellent critics.”
Then, rapping gently on the table, he glanced about him. “A motion is in order before we adjourn, my friends,” he stated, expectantly.
“I move Mr. Carp’s report be adopted as it stands,” said Marvin Lattimer breathlessly. He had waited patiently all afternoon to speak just those words. His business judgment, as applied to social affairs, had taught him the wisdom of getting into the record. He was only a recent confidant of this inner circle of All Souls and he aspired to remain where he was. Besides, it would be something to tell the socially ambitious Mrs. Lattimer when he got home. There was a second from Miss Laforth.
“You hear the motion,” breathed the reverend chairman. “Those in favor will please say ‘aye.’” As they all responded he beamed upon them. He turned with a deprecatory glance to Carp. “And as a matter of form, those contrary minded will please signify by saying ‘no.’”
He waited a moment. Quite clearly and distinctly Mary Randall spoke: