You are clever, Paula, very clever in your way, but you don't, and you never will, understand politics.

I beg of you not to damage my prospects.

Cultivate a safe habit of speech.

You may talk of the events of the season, of pigeon shooting, of horse racing, of the Prince and Princess of Wales, and so on; it's what everybody expects in a fashionable lady.

Of course if you _had_ been able to take up politics in earnest--but, never mind.