be honest? You would be marked as not valuing your honesty at five
pounds. No, you would pay and pay readily."

My words were addressed to Peter, but Hilda seemed the more
interested. "It sounds well, but how would you raise the money?" she
asked.

"That would depend on the virtue," I replied. "The sobriety tax, for
example, would be levied on anyone who had not for some years been
convicted of drunkenness."

"But how about the virtues that you don't get fined for not
having--truthfulness, unselfishness, kindheartedness and all those?"

"I admit that would be difficult. Can you suggest anything?" I asked
Peter.

"No," he answered. "I'm not encouraging your rotten idea anyhow."

"Could the revenue officials feel people's bumps?" inquired Hilda
reflectively.

"I'm afraid," I said, "people wouldn't stand it. Fancy Peter----"

"I've got it," said Hilda. "The revenue officials would attribute a
virtue to the taxpayer, and if he wanted to escape taxation they would
require him to prove to them that he lacked the virtue in question."

"They would like doing that," muttered Peter.