rer_ (_hesitating_). Well, I'm not quite sure. I rather fancy he did
say something of that kind. But--(_deprecatingly_)--perhaps he meant
something else.

_First W. I. M._ No, I didn't. I meant what I said--and I stick to it. But
that isn't the same thing as the Registration System.

_Second W. I. M._ Perhaps you'll tell us, then, what the Registration
System is?

_Inquirer_ (_eagerly_). Yes, do. I should like to get to the bottom of it,
because I'm constantly meeting a sort of third cousin of mine, who's a
Registrar of something or other, and I never quite know what he does. All I
know is, that he isn't a Registrar in Bankruptcy.

_First W. I. M._ Let me see--how can I put it shortly? It's just this--you
chaps have got votes.

_Inquirer_ (_decisively_). No, I haven't.

_First W. I. M._ (_put out_). Ah, but you ought to have.

_Second W. I. M._ (_cutting in_). There you are again. That's just what
I've been saying all along. He ought to have--but he hasn't; so where's
your beautiful system now?

_First W. I. M._ (_retreating strategically_). I never said it was
_perfect_, did I? But I'll come to that afterwards. (_To_ Inquirer.) Now
why haven't you got a vote?

_Inquirer_ (_with a painful sense of inferiority_). I'm sure I don't know.
I suppose the old Johnny, whoever he is, didn't chalk me down when he went
round last time.

_First W. I. M._ Probably you haven't lived in your house long enough. You
haven't got a qualifying period.

_Inquirer._ Haven't I? How long ought I to have lived there?

_First W. I. M._ (_vaguely_). Oh, it's something between three and four
years. I can't tell you the exact number; they alter it every year.

_Second W. I. M._ Who alter it?

_First W. I. M._ The Revising Barristers, or somebody.

_Second W. I. M._ Well, my brother-in-law's a Revising Barrister, and I
never heard of him doing that.

_First W. I. M._ (_sarcastic_). But you don't suppose he'd tell _you_
everything he does, do you?

_Inquirer._ But I've lived in my house six years.

_First W. I. M._ Ah! but aren't you a lodger?

_Second W. I. M._ What's the odds if he is? My brother's a lodger, and I
know he's got a vote.

_First W. I. M._ But that's a different franchise altogether.

_Second W. I. M._ How do you mean? They're both lodgers.

_First W. I. M._ But they don't live in the same district. Perhaps they
don't give him a latch-key.

_Inquirer_ (_producing it_). Yes they do. Here it is. (_Chuckles._