"It is Mr. Brown--Reverend Mr. Brown, speaking."
"Oh, yes?" instinctively covering her half-clad feet in the folds of her gown.
"I believe you live near the Reverend Mr. Smith, and are a member of his church."
"Will you be good enough to send to him, and ask if he can spare his curate to take Mr. Brown's early service for him, as he is called away. I would be glad if you would send immediately, as I must have his answer within fifteen minutes. Thank you. Please call up 1001," and snap went the telephone.
Mrs. Jones looked at her raiment and reflected that her one servant was at mass and would not be back for an hour. She went slowly up-stairs.
"The Reverend Brown has telephoned to know whether the Reverend Smith can send his curate to take his early service."
"Well, what in the world have I got to do with the peddling out of early services?" snapped Jones, as he turned and shook up his pillows.
"He has to have an answer to his message within fifteen minutes."
"Well, let Susan take it," settling back comfortably.
"And I suppose that means that I am to be turned out of my bed at daybreak, and canter half a mile!" cried Jones, in a high and excited voice, as he bounced from his bed and began to grope sleepily for his clothes. His toilet was made amidst grumblings of "Confound their early services, why can't they stay in bed like Christians, instead of prowling about, and sending men out in the chilly morning air," etc., etc.
Jones's temper was soured for the day, and that night, as he was winding his watch, he said severely, "Jane, I'm going to draw the line at delivering messages. Tom, Dick, and Harry can come here and bellow into the telephone until they are hoarse, but I'll be switched if I'll be messenger boy any longer."
But messages continued to come and go, increasing rather than decreasing in frequency. People in the neighborhood fell into the habit of saying to friends in distant parts of the city, when leaving a question open: "Just telephone me when you make up your mind. I haven't a telephone myself, but the Joneses have, and they are very obliging about letting me use it."
So the fact that a telephone was owned by an obliging family circulated almost as rapidly as if it had been a lie.