o it," said the Sheep; "I'm rather good at that sort of thing."

The chairman was popular with all parties, and the Sheep's opening words
of complimentary recognition received a round of applause. The orator
smiled expansively on his listeners and seized the opportunity to add a
few words of political wisdom on his own account. People looked at the
clock or began to grope for umbrellas and discarded neckwraps. Then, in
the midst of a string of meaningless platitudes, the Sheep delivered
himself of one of those blundering remarks which travel from one end of a
constituency to the other in half an hour, and are seized on by the other
side as being more potent on their behalf than a ton of election
literature. There was a general shuffling and muttering across the
length and breadth of the hall, and a few hisses made themselves heard.
The Sheep tried to whittle down his remark, and the chairman
unhesitatingly threw him over in his speech of thanks, but the damage was
done.

"I'm afraid I lost touch with the audience rather over that remark," said
the Sheep afterwards, with his apologetic smile abnormally developed.

"You lost us the election," said the chairman, and he proved a true
prophet.

A month or so of winter sport seemed a desirable pick-me-up after the
strenuous work and crowning discomfiture of the election. Rupert and
Kathleen hied them away to a small Alpine resort that was just coming
into prominence, and thither the Sheep followed them in due course, in
his role of husband-elect. The wedding had been fixed for the end of
March.

It was a winter of early and unseasonable thaws, and the far end of the
local lake, at a spot where swift currents flowed into it, was decorated
with notices, written in three languages, warning skaters not to venture
over certain unsafe patches. The folly of approaching too near these
danger spots seemed to have a natural fascination for the Sheep.

"I don't see what possible danger there can be," he protested, with his
inevitable smile, when Rupert beckoned him away from the proscribed area;
"the milk that I put out on my window-sill last night was frozen an inch
deep."

"It hadn't got a strong current flowing through it," said Rupert; "in any
case, there is not much sense in hovering round a doubtful piece of ice
when there are acres of good ice to skate over. The secretary of the ice-
committee has warned you once already."

A few minutes later Rupert heard a loud