o you. But you must allow you are
spending a great deal, mustn't you? Some of it is well spent, I'll
admit, and--and it's none of my business at all--but when it comes to
telephones and for those people--please don't be angry, Miss
Lavillotte!--it does seem absurd."

Joyce laughed good-naturedly. His distress was genuine.

"I know it must from your point of view, but now pray listen to mine. I
believe that there are certain essentials of easy living that ought to
be practically free to all, and might be, if managed correctly. Of
these, four are air and water, light and heat, and the fifth is prompt
communication with your fellow-men. When my grandmother was a girl it
cost a neat little sum to send a letter anywhere, and hundreds of
families, unable to bear the expense of correspondence, lost sight of
each other, often for years, sometimes for life, in the unavoidable
separation which must come to all growing households. After a time this
matter appealed so strongly to thinking men that they decided to make a
great national matter of it, and they established a wonderful mail
service, and have kept lowering the rates and adding to the perfection
of the service, until now hardly any one is so poor he cannot write a
line to a friend, if only on a postal card. Now a quicker, better means
of communication is given us in the telephone and telegraph, and I claim
that these should also be regulated and run by government in the
interests of the people, and thus made available to all at nominal
rates. I can't control Congress, but I can control Littleton with its
few hundred souls, and that I mean to do in this. Every house shall have
its 'phone, that every person may have the opportunity to express his
wants at once, or to call in help, if needed."

Dalton gave a hopeless shrug.

"They'll use them for gossiping, mostly."

"No, that is to be regulated. The time allowed for each separate use
will be short, and if any abuse the privilege they will be cut off."

"Humph! Do you expect one central to manage it all?"

"Yes, one officer, but not one girl. I shall have four people, all told,
two girls for day hours and two men for night hours. I intend to have
them work in relays--four hours off and four on. It is too nervous a
strain for longer hours than that. The night operators will have a cot
for the one off duty, so that if anything unusual happens the waking one
can call the other. I think it must be doleful to stay alone in