"No, Francesca," I said, "I do not like it. To be quite frank with you I detest it."
"But you're helping the War," she said. "That ought to buck you up like anything. Every extra penny you pay is a smack in the eye for the Kaiser, so cheer up and make a good big return."
"I will do," I said, "what is strictly fair between myself and the Government. I can afford to be just to the Chancellor, but, by Heaven, I cannot afford to be generous. Generosity has no place in an Income Tax return."
"Go ahead with it then," she said. "I don't know what's stopping you."
"You," I said, "are stopping me—you and that part of my income from which the tax is not deducted at the source."
"That sounds quite poetical," she said. "It runs into metre directly. Listen:—
No man can well be rude or even coarse
Who has his tax deducted at the source.
But I wish you'd tell me what it means."
"Francesca," I said bitterly, "you are pleased to be a rhymer. You are, in fact, rhyming while the exchequer is burning; and then you add insult to injury by asking me the meaning of an elementary financial phrase."