"That ought to bowl them over. But hadn't I better know what it means before I mention it?"
"Yes, that might be an advantage."
"You see," she said, "Mrs. Mincer devotes to the reading of newspapers all the time she can spare from the cooking of meals and she'd be sure to trip me up if I ventured to say anything about tonnage."
"Learn then," I said, "that tonnage means the amount of space reserved for cargoes on ships—at least I suppose that's what it means, and——"
"You don't seem very sure about it. Hadn't you better look it up?"
"No," I said. "That's good enough for Mrs. Mincer. Now if there's an insufficiency of tonnage——"
"But why should there be an insufficiency of tonnage?"
"Because," I said, "the Government have taken up so much tonnage for the purposes of the War. How did you think the Army got supplied with food and shells and guns and men? Did you think they flew over to France and Egypt and Salonica?"
"Don't be rude," she said. "I didn't introduce this question of tonnage. You did. And even now I don't see what tonnage has got to do with our sirloin of beef."
"I will," I said kindly, "explain it to you all over again. We have ample tonnage for necessaries, but not for luxuries."