ns about Free Trade one way or the other, but I saw
no other chance to get what I wanted. My young gentleman was far too
absorbed in his own difficulties to think how odd it was to ask a
stranger who had just missed death by an ace and had lost a
1,000-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, too. I'm Liberal, because my family have always
been Whigs.' But if he was lukewarm politically he had strong views on
other things. He found out I knew a bit about horses, and jawed away
about the Derby entries; and he was full of plans for improving his
shooting. Altogether, a very clean, decent, callow young man.

As we passed through a little town two policemen signalled us to stop,
and flashed their lanterns on us.

'Beg pardon, Sir Harry,' said one. 'We've got instructions to look out
for a car, and the description's no unlike yours.'

'Right-o,' said my host, while I thanked Providence for the devious
ways I had been brought to safety. After that he spoke no more, for
his mind began to labour heavily with his coming speech. His lips kept
muttering, his eye wandered, and I began to prepare myself for a second
catastrophe. I tried to think of something to say myself, but my mind
was dry as a stone. The next thing I knew we had drawn up outside a
door in a street, and were being welcomed by some noisy gentlemen with
rosettes. The hall had about five hundred in it, women mostly, a lot
of bald heads, and a dozen or two young men. The chairman, a weaselly
minister with a reddish nose, lamented Crumpl