‘It is not a bit more perfunctory than the present system,’ said Egbert; ‘I have only the same conventional language of gratitude at my disposal with which to thank dear old Colonel Chuttle for his perfectly delicious Stilton, which we shall devour to the last morsel, and the Froplinsons for their calendar, which we shall never look at. Colonel Chuttle knows that we are grateful for the Stilton, without having to be told so, and the Froplinsons know that we are bored with their calendar, whatever we may say to the contrary, just as we know that they are bored with the bridge-markers in spite of their written assurance that they thanked us for our charming little gift. What is more, the Colonel knows that even if we had taken a sudden aversion to Stilton or been forbidden it by the doctor, we should still have written a letter of hearty thanks around it. So you see the present system of acknowledgment is just as perfunctory and conventional as the counterfoil business would be, only ten times more tiresome and brain-racking.’

‘Your plan would certainly bring the ideal of a Happy Christmas a step nearer realization,’ said Janetta.

‘There are exceptions, of course,’ said Egbert, ‘people who really try to infuse a breath of reality into their letters of acknowledgment. Aunt Susan, for instance, who writes: “Thank you very much for the ham; not such a good flavour as the one you sent last year which itself was not a particularly good one. Hams are not what they used to be.” It would be a pity to be deprived of her Christmas comments, but that loss would be swallowed up in the general gain.’

‘Meanwhile,’ said Janetta, ‘what am I to say to the Froplinsons?’