Tait smiled in spite of himself, for he was one of Willie's numberless non-admirers. Now Persis, seeing him smiling, returned to open attack:
"Last summer you took Captain Forbes to Evian-les-Bains to get him away from me. Didn't you?"
Tait was off his guard; he stammered: "Certainly not—that is—well, how did you find it out?"
Persis shrugged her shoulders and smiled. "My mother took me to England when I was very young to get me away from a beautiful butcher's boy. She succeeded; she was a woman. You won't; you're a man."
"Help, help!" Tait gasped, in a parody of fear that had a groundwork of reality.
"You love Captain Forbes, don't you?" Persis lunged at his heart again; and he answered, solemnly:
"Yes, I do, as if he were my own son."
"Why don't you want me to see him?"
"Why do you want to see him? You're married."
"But they don't keep women in harems nowadays. Paris is very dull this winter. Don't take Captain Forbes away again."