nicest eyes and the prettiest moustache. That's what I shall do with
my vote. I shall vote with it by ballot. What else could I do?"

"Great Heaven! Francesca, how can you be so frivolous? Are you aware
that politics, in which you are now to play a part however humble, are
a serious matter?"

"I know," she said, "and that is why they'll be all the better for
an occasional touch of lightness. There's some Latin quotation about
Apollo, isn't there, my Public School and University man? Well, I'm
all for that."

"But," I said, "you don't know how dangerous it is to be light and
humorous at public meetings or in the House of Commons. A man gets a
reputation for that sort of thing, and then he's expected to keep it
up; and, anyhow, it gives him no influence, however funny he may be.
The other men laugh at him, but distrust him profoundly."

"Pooh!" said Francisca. "That's all very well for men--they have
little humour and no wit--"

"My dear Francesca, how can you venture to fly in the face of all
experience--"

"Men's experience," she said; "it doesn't count. You've often said
that smoking-room stories are the dullest in the world."

"How you do dart about," I said, "from subject to subject. Just now
you were in a polling-booth and now you're in a smoking-room."