"Mother, you are too frivolous," Elisabeth insisted. "If this tone of levity is not dropped, I shall start another subject of conversation. Mr. Maraton, you, of course, are in favour of Universal Manhood Suffrage?"
"I am not at all sure about it," he replied. "It gives the vote to a lot of people I'd sooner see deported."
"But you--you to talk like that!" she exclaimed.
"Votes should belong to those who have a stake in the country, not to the flotsam and jetsam," he continued solemnly.
"Not a bit," he answered. "If I had my way, you would very soon see that one man wouldn't have so much more stake in the country than another. Then Universal Suffrage follows automatically--in fact that's the way I'd arrive at it."
"Don't ever let Mr. Maraton be Prime Minister!" Elisabeth begged. "He's too iconoclastic."
"And just now I was a Tory," Maraton protested.
"It isn't my fault that you are a study in contraries," she laughed. "But then politicians are rather like that, aren't they? I think really that they should be like surgeons, specialise all the time."
"Come down to Ranelagh and play golf after luncheon," Lord Carton suggested abruptly from across the table. "I've got my little racing car outside and I'll take you down there like a rocket."
"Thanks," she answered, "I want particularly to stay in till four o'clock this afternoon. Besides, you can't play golf, you know."
"I don't think Elisabeth has improved," he remarked to her mother, turning deliberately away.
"And I am sure Jack's left his heart in Central America," Elisabeth declared. "He was always fond of dark-complexioned ladies. Mr. Maraton, have you been a great traveller?"
"I have been in South America," he replied, "and I know most of the country between San Francisco and New York pretty well."
"I walked from Vienna to Paris when I was a boy," he told her. "It's years, though, since I was on the Continent."
Her cousin began to talk of his hunting experiences, and every one listened. As soon as the service of luncheon was concluded, Lady Grenside rose.
"I dare say we shall all meet again before you go," she said. "Coffee is being served to you in the library, Stephen. We won't say good-bye to anybody. Jack, don't forget that you are dining here to-night. You shall take in the blackest young lady I can pick out for you."
