“You’ll feel better when you’ve had a drop of brandy. Antiquated things those ventilators at the City Hall. Aylett thinks they’ve been there since the time of Queen Anne. But they’re not the only things I’m going to scrap if I hold office another year. There’s too much flummery and red tape round about Corporation Square. Tradition is all very well but we want something practical.”
Alice entered with a decanter.
“Ah, that’ll put you right. A little meat for the Mistress, Alice. Never mind the soda. It’ll not hurt you, Mother. Prime stuff is that and prime stuff never does harm to no one. Some I’ve had by me at the Duke of Wellington for many a year.”
At first the Mayoress was very shy of the brandy, prime stuff though it was, but his worship was adamant, and after a moment or two of half-hearted resistance Maria seemed the better for her lord’s inflexibility.
“Talkin’ of the Duke of Wellington ... funny how things work out! When we went in there in ’79, you and me, we little thought we should be where we are now, in the most important time in history. That reminds me. Alice, just ring up the Tribune Office and give the editor my compliments and tell him I’ve arranged to speak to-morrow at the Gas Works at twelve o’clock and they had better send a reporter.”
“Very good, sir.”
“Alice!“
Alice halted sphinx-like at the door.
“Wait a minute. I’ll go myself!” Josiah plucked his table napkin out of his collar. “Nothing like doing a thing while it’s fresh in your mind. And do it yourself if you want it done right. I must have a word with Parslow the editor. The jockey he sent to Jubilee Park to report the flower show didn’t know his business. The most important part of the speech was left out.” He laid down his table napkin and rose determinedly. “Nice thing in a time like this for the Mayor of the City not to be fully reported. I’ve half a mind to tell that Parslow what I think of him. Some people don’t seem to know there’s a war on.”
Five minutes later when Josiah returned in triumph to his gooseberries he found Maria reclining on the sofa with her feet up, next the window opening on to the spacious lawns of Strathfieldsaye. The impassive but assiduous handmaid was fanning her mistress with a handkerchief.