THE THIRTY-NINE STEPS
a one-thousand-guinea car to address a meeting for him on the spur of the moment. But my necessities did not allow me to contemplate oddnesses or to pick and choose my supports.
"All right," I said. "I'm not much good as a speaker, but I'll tell them a bit about Australia."
At my words the cares-of the ages slipped from his shoulders and he was rapturous in his thanks. He lent me a big driving coat—and never troubled to ask why I had started on a motor tour without possessing an ulster—and as we slipped down the dusty roads poured into my ears the simple facts of his history. He was an orphan and his uncle had brought him up—I've forgotten the uncle's name, but he was in the Cabinet and you can read his speeches in the papers. He had gone round the world after leaving Cambridge, and then, being short of a job, his uncle had advised politics. I gathered that he had no preference in parties. "Good chaps in both," he said cheerfully, "and plenty of blighters,
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