Love for Sale

door of the lunchroom, he asked where the town voted.
    “At the City Hall, on the green. I wonder what sort of turnout there will be. I’m going the moment they open.”
    When he was finished with the children that afternoon, and after reminding them again to urge their parents to vote, he went home and ran into Lily helping Mrs. Prinney prepare for dinner. “We vote at the City Hall,“ he said. “Mrs. Tarkington said she was going there when it opened. You might want to as well.“
    “I’d have to get up at the crack of dawn to stand in line and vote before school starts,“ Lily said. “I think I’ll wait till the afternoon. And I can drop in on Phoebe and make sure she’s voted, too.“
    “Right. Hey, Lily, how about if I spend the morning swanning around the countryside in the Duesie bringing people in to vote?“
    “That’s a grand idea,“ Lily said. “Everybody would love to ride in it. And you better find Howard Walker and remind him to take time out to vote, as well. I think he’s spending today again at the asylum, questioning those awful people he so nicely removed from Grace and Favor.“
    “I’m not going to the asylum for him. Imagine the people who might want to come along for the ride!”

Chapter 12

    Bright and early on Election Day, Robert appealed to Mrs. Prinney. “I need a banner for the Duesie.“
    “How big?“ Mrs. Prinney asked calmly. She’d become very mellow now that the guests were gone.
    “As big as we can do. I want it to say, ‘Free Ride to Vote for Roosevelt.’ “
    “Give me fifteen minutes,“ the older woman said.
    She turned up with ten feet of old muslin. “Will this do?“
    “Brilliantly. I found some red paint in the garage. How do I get the banner on the car?“
    “Thin the paint so it will dry fast and I’ll see what I can do.“ She fired up the kitchen stove and as soon as Robert had the banner done, they hung it from a clothesline she’d rigged up across the room.
    “That should only take a little time. Now let’s look over the car.”
    Robert already had the Duesie parked at the front door. They found various places they could tie it onto the driver’s side of the vehicle. By the time they’d figured it out, the paint was dry and stinking up the house. “It’s a wonder it didn’t blow up and burn the mansion down,“ Robert said. “Thank you so much!”
    He was moved to give Mrs. Prinney a kiss on her cheek, then got in the car and roared off, leaving her in the driveway, blushing.
    Her husband discovered her standing outside a moment later. “Emmaline, you don’t even have a coat on. What are you doing? Come inside and bundle up. We need to go vote.”
    After Mrs. Prinney had changed from her housedress to a decent public dress, her best hat, coat, stockings, shoes, and her most flattering corset, they drove to town.
    Meanwhile, Robert was driving the country roads, honking for people to come out and take a ride. Soon the Duesie was loaded to the gills with farmers, their wives, and whatever voting-age children they could round up. Muddy boots and trousers were the order of the day, but Robert, for once, didn’t care. He could clean it up later.
    He dropped off his cargo at City Hall, calling to them, “I’ll be back in half an hour to pick you up,“ and sped off to collect a new group on another road.
    By noon, when he was to be at the school, he figured he’d hauled more than forty voters to the polls. He dropped the last group off at their homes and went to ask Lily if she could handle one more hour so he could get at least ten or twelve more. She came out of the lunchroom and gasped. The banner was impressive, but the car was filthy.
    “How will you ever get it cleaned?“
    “I’ll manage somehow. I might have to drive it into the front hall so I don’t freeze my hands mopping it up.“
    “Robert, listen. I’ll take all your afternoon classes for you on one condition.“
    “What’s that?“
    “That before you take me home, you give the kids in our class a ride and take me to vote. I kept watching for the line to become shorter all morning, and thanks to you, it never did.”
    Virtually the whole juvenile population of the school was pooling around the car like a bunch of curious fish, touching the finish, oohing and aahing over the dirty leather upholstery. Two of the boys had already crawled under it to look at the gears. Lily warned Robert of this and called the children back inside, checking one last time that