Needless to say, Mrs. Grice took not the slightest notice.
"Well, sir, George told me to tell 'Enery—that bein' his name; Grice's, as you know, bein' Albert—"
"Keep to the point, do!" groaned Mr. Grice.
"—George told me to tell 'Enery—'Enery 'Orbling his full name was—that if him and me wasn't married inside of four weeks, George would come along and knock his 'ead off. I told 'Enery what George had said, sir," continued the old lady in a tone of tender reminiscence, "and I became Mrs. 'Orbling in three weeks and six days exactly. That's what I meant when I said that my courting was done by deputy. 'Orbling died fourteen years ago, in Charing Cross Hospital. His kidneys are still—"
"I see," said Philip hurriedly. "Grice, when you asked the future Mrs. Grice to become your wife, how did you set about it?"
"Was you referrin', sir," enquired Mr. Grice, with a respectful wheeze, "to this Mrs. Grice or to my first wife?"
"Let us say this Mrs. Grice," said Philip, beginning to feel a little dizzy.
Mr. Grice, who had been assisting his second choice to load glasses and spoons on to a tray, once more desisted from his labours in order not to confuse his brain, and began, fixing his wavering eye upon a point on the wall just above Philip's head:—
"I met 'er at a birthday party at my late first's married sister's, sir. I gave her a motter out of a cracker, which seemed to me to sum up what I wanted to say in very convenient fashion, sir. It said:—
"'If you love me as I love you,
Then let's begin to bill and coo,'