“Our circulation, for one thing,” explained Clodd. “The returns for last month—”
“I’d rather you didn’t mention them, if you don’t mind,” interrupted Peter Hope; “somehow, hearing the actual figures always depresses me.”
“Can’t say I feel inspired by them myself,” admitted Clodd.
“It will come,” said Peter Hope, “it will come in time. We must educate the public up to our level.”
“If there is one thing, so far as I have noticed,” said William Clodd, “that the public are inclined to pay less for than another, it is for being educated.”
“What are we to do?” asked Peter Hope.
“What you want,” answered William Clodd, “is an office-boy.”
“How will our having an office-boy increase our circulation?” demanded Peter Hope. “Besides, it was agreed that we could do without one for the first year. Why suggest more expense?”
“I don’t mean an ordinary office-boy,” explained Clodd. “I mean the sort of boy that I rode with in the train going down to Stratford yesterday.”
“What was there remarkable about him?”