Mrs. Neff returned his bow with an old-fashioned courtesy, as she beamed:
"Very prettily said! Old fashioned and nice. My first husband would have answered like that. Did Murray tell you that I had offered you the job of being my third husband?"
"Mother!" Alice gasped.
Forbes was exquisitely ill at ease. It is hard to parry banter of that sort from a woman. He bowed again and answered with an ambiguous smile:
"Nothing would give me more pleasure."
"Fine! Then we may as well announce our engagement. Kind friends, permit me to introduce my next husband, Mr.—Mr.—what is your first name, darling?"
"Mother!" Alice implored.
"Oh, I'm sure his first name can't be Mother. But we're missing the dance. Come along, hero mine!"
Forbes cast a farewell look of longing at Persis, who was regarding him with an amused bewilderment.
The blare of the band was as effectual as a Gabriel's trumpet opening graves. From the tables the dead came to life and took on stilts if not wings.