He had a shrewd eye, a double chin, and a bluff, crisp, jovial manner of talking as he lay back in an armchair with his legs crossed and played with his watch chain, an important way of nodding assent, a weighty shake of denial.

Voting on purely party lines, the town had later rewarded his invincible expectation by electing him Mayor, and then provided itself with unlimited entertainment by putting in a Liberal majority on his council, the reports of the weekly sittings being constantly considered as good as a cake walk.

South Fox, as people said, was not a healthy locality for Conservatives.

Yet Walter Winter wore a look of remarkable hardiness.

He had also tremendously the air of a dark horse, the result both of natural selection and careful cultivation.