‘I do like Phoebe immensely,’ said Mr. Foster, appealing in his diffident way to everyone, ‘but she doesn’t feel like it.’
‘Besides,’ said Phoebe, with the bitterness which the mention of the stage always brought into her voice, ‘there’s my profession. But I don’t mind dancing with you. Come on.’
Guy and Sally joined them, to the strains of the gramophone, and pleasure was taken seriously till Sally exclaimed, ‘Oh Lord! what about the historical characters?’
All four young people stopped dead and became speechless. After a decent interval they all spoke at once, making various suggestions which were in their turn countered, again everyone speaking at once, by such objections as No one knows if he ever existed, How can you talk like a person that you don’t know anything about, The archde
