CARVE. (Reading.) "Mrs. Albert Shawn. Sir or Madam."--Why are shareholders never supposed to have any particular sex?--"Sir or Madam. Cohoon's Brewery, Ltd.,--I am directed by the shareholders' provisional committee of investigation to request your attendance at an informal meeting of shareholders to be held in room 2009 Winchester House on Friday the 20th inst. at noon. If you cannot be present, will you kindly write stating whether or not you will be prepared to support the committee of investigation at the annual meeting. In view of the probability that the directors' report will be unfavourable, and the ordinary dividend either passed or much reduced, the committee wishes to be thoroughly prepared and armed. Believe me, Sir or Madam." Oh! So that's it, is it? JANET. Yes. My father said to me before he died, "Keep the money in beer, Janet"; he said, "Beer'll never fail in this country." And there you are! (She goes to fireplace, opens coal scuttle, takes out a piece of paper ready placed within, and sticks it on the handle so as to keep her hands from being soiled as she replenishes the fire.) CARVE. (Lightly.) Oh, well! We must wait and see what happens. JANET. Supposing the dividend doesn't happen? CARVE. I never worry about money. JANET. But we shall want to eat once or twice pretty nearly every day, I suppose? CARVE. Personally, I am quite satisfied with a plain but perfect table. JANET. You needn't tell me what you are satisfied with. You're satisfied with the very best at one shilling and sixpence a pound. CARVE. I can place eighty pounds per annum at your absolute disposal. That alone will pay for over a thousand best cuts. JANET. Yes, and what about your clothes and my clothes, and the rates and taxes, and bus-fares, and holidays, and your cigarettes, and doctor, and errand boys' Christmas-boxes, and gas, and coal, and repairs? Repairs! A hundred and eighty is more like what we want. CARVE. And yet you have several times taken your Bible oath that my half-share of it all came to less than forty pounds. JANET. Well--er--I was thinking of food. (She begins to collect the breakfast things.) CARVE. Jane, you have been a deceitful thing. But never mind. I will draw a veil over this sinful past. Let us assume that beer goes all to pieces, and that you never get another cent out of Cohoon's. Well, as you need a hundred and eighty a year, I will give you a hundred and eighty a year. JANET. And where shall you get the extra hundred? CARVE. I shall earn it. JANET. No, you don't. I won't have you taking any more situations. CARVE. I shall earn it here. JANET. How? CARVE. Painting!