It was at this crisis that the Hon. Mrs. Sampson Hoyt rose to the heights of the parliamentary opportunity.
“I move the previous question,” she said, distinctly and firmly.
There fell a hush of awe over the sewing-circle, and even Miss Snob was a moment in bringing out her second.
“I don’t think!” Mrs. President Smithe ventured, a little falteringly, “that I quite understood the motion.”
“I moved,” the Hon. Mrs. Hoyt replied, with the air of one conscious that her husband had once been almost nominated to the State Legislature, and had been addressed as Honorable ever after, “I moved the previous question.”
“Yes?” Mrs. Smithe said, inquiringly and pleadingly.
“That takes everything back to the beginning,” Mrs. Hoyt condescended to explain, “and we can then change the date of our fair in a strictly legal way.”
She threw a glance of superb scorn around her as she spoke, and even Miss Sharp took on a subdued and corrected air.
“It is moved and seconded the previous question,” Mrs. Smithe propounded, with an air of great relief. “It is a vote.”