Page:The council of seven.djvu/247



Dame Agnita Shrubsole, D.B.E. ("Aunt Mittie") will address the gathering.

N.B. ENDOR MUST GO

"Very pretty!" Again Sir Munt paid involuntary tribute. "Very nice, indeed!" He handed the leaflet to his friend. "What do you think on it, Murrell?"

The Alderman adjusted a pair of gold-rimmed eye-glasses, a replica of the Mayor's, and read the document with care.

"Charwomen don't cut much ice, anyway," was the comment of Alderman Murrell.

The further-seeing man of affairs took him up sharply. "Don't make any mistake, my boy. Charwomen have all got a vote these days, the same as you and me. That's where the fun comes in. Aunt Mittie's Own Journal sells its millions of copies a week. And if you subscribe to it, you get reductions on everything from a nightgown edged with Honiton lace to a bottle of lime juice cordial. You can also ballot for free tickets to the movies, the Christmas Goose Club and the U. P. Burial Society. I tell you, my boy, you get your money's worth with Aunt Mittie's Own Journal."

"How they do it for twopence a week—that's what gets me!" The mind of the linendraper Imperialist moved in a rather narrow orbit.

"They don't do it—not on the paper. But what they lose on the swings, they get back on the round