"
"Thanks; it's pleasant to be appreciated as one deserves. And now I'll
tell you what I'm going to do with my vote. When the time comes I
shall take it with me into what's called a polling-booth, and I shall
demand a piece of paper, and then--yes, then I shall destroy the
sanctity of the home and neglect my children, and, incidentally, I
shall break up the Empire, and do all the other dreadful things that
you and the others have been prophesying; and I shall do them simply
by making a cross opposite the name of the candidate who's got the
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.
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