Against the Current: Simple Chapters from a Complex Life. Edward Alfred Steiner

      Our welcome was not such as royal guests might expect, and very reluctantly we were led into the drawing-room where, nearly touching the high ceiling, stood the lighted Christmas tree from which hung glittering things that fairly dazzled us.

      I had been told that in Catholic homes we would be greeted, according to custom, in the following manner: “You royal sirs, our visitors, what is the cause that brings you thus?”

      Instead of that, the rough, jeering voice of the Pany said: “Get done with your mummery, you lousy brats!” The two Gentile boys, born to obey such commands, fell upon their knees and recited: