“That’s all about that. But I have something to tell you—a suggestion to make for your campaign, if you will not consider it impertinent.”
“Quite otherwise. I shall be very glad to get it.”
“You have been saying in your speeches that the bad water has been due to intentional mismanagement of the present administration, which is ruled by Mr. Blake, for the purpose of rendering unpopular the municipal ownership principle.”
“I have, and it’s been very effective.”
“I suggest that you go farther.”
“How?”
“Make the fever an issue of the campaign. The people, in fact all of us, have been too excited, too frightened, to understand the relation between the bad management of the water-works, the bad water, and the fever. Tell them that relation. Only tell it carefully, by insinuation if necessary, so that you will avoid the libel law—for you have no proof as yet. Make them understand that the fever is due to bad water, which in turn is due to bad management of the water-works, which in turn is due to the influence of Mr. Blake.”
“Great! Great!” exclaimed Bruce.
“Oh, the idea is not really mine,” she said coldly. “It came to me from some things my father told me.”
Her tone recalled to him their chilly relationship.