Some famous chaps were there, too.
I honored it with my presence.
At the table I chanced to sit next to a learned professor, head of a famous college. And during the meal some fiendish spirit induced me to turn toward him and say:
"Professor, can you tell me who that uncommonly ugly lady is, opposite to you?"
He looked at me with a wicked smile.
"Sir," he said, "she chances to be my wife."
Of course I was overwhelmed with confusion, and to crawl out of the hole I did what any other person would have done under the same circumstances.
"Pardon me, professor, but I mean the lady on the right."
"And that, sir, is my daughter," he said, solemnly.