In
every corner of the room were lounge chairs and on the
tables games of all description. Here and there small groups
were being entertained by the members, and, judging by the
unrestrained merriment, they were proving themselves very
capable hosts.
"We were told to make ourselves absolutely at home; and
although we entered with zest into all that was going on, I
don't think really that we quite lost the feeling that a
prayer-meeting was bound to follow. Much to our surprise no
one came up and spoke to us about our souls; indeed our
hosts led the way into all the fun that was going, and none
of them had the milk-and-bun expression of countenance that
we had conjured up in our mind's eye. You can see what our
conception of Y.M.C.A. members was. We imagined them a
narrow-minded set of some mild kind of religious fanatics."
I promised a veracious chronicle, and I am quoting Sydney Baxter word
for word. I am inclined to believe that here he is expressing his
companions' anxieties rather than his own.
"The tea gong sounded and our hosts led the way to another
large room, and upon the tables was a sumptuous spread.
Being young men we did full justice to it, and throughout
the whole of tea time this same atmosphere of sociability
surrounded us.
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