without a promotion if I hadn't given somebody the tip to shove you up!" "What's that?" Kenneth exclaimed, almost under his breath. Sir Charles appeared not to have heard the interruption. He went on, warming to his subject and addressing an imaginary disputant: "No, sir, I do _not_ believe in what is termed Education in this country. It don't help a man to rise if he hasn't got it in him.... Why, look at _me_! _I_ got on without education. Don't you suppose other lads, if they're smart enough, can do the same? Don't you think I'm an example of what a man can become when he's had no education?" The younger Speed nodded. The argument was irrefutable. II After dinner Speed managed to get his father alone in the library. "I want to know," he said, quietly, "what you meant when you said something about giving somebody the tip to shove me up. I want to know exactly, mind." Sir Charles waved his arm across a table. "Don't you talk to me like that, my lad. I'm too old for you to cross-examine. I'm willin' to tell you anythin' you like, only I won't be bullied into it. So now you know. Light yourself a cigar an', for God's sake, sit down and look comfortable." "Perhaps I could look it if I felt it." "Your own fault if you don't feel it. Damned ingratitude, I call it. Sit down. I shan't answer a question till you're sitting down and smoking as if you was a friend of mine an' not a damned commercial traveller." Speed decided that he had better humour him; he sat down and toyed with a cigar. "Now, if you'll please tell me." "What is it you want me to tell you?" grunted Sir Charles. "I want you to tell me what you meant by saying that you gave somebody a tip to shove me up?" "Well, my lad, you don't want to stay an assistant-master all your life, do you?" "That's not the point. I want to know what you did." "Why, I did the usual thing that I'd always do to help somebody I'm interested in." "What's that?" "Well, you know. Pull a few wires.... Man like me has a few wires he can pull. I know people, you see--and if I just mention a little thing--well, they generally remember it all right." And he spread himself luxuriously in the arm-chair and actually smiled! The other flushed hotly. "I see. May I ask whose help you solicited on my behalf?" "Don't talk like a melodrama, my lad. I'm your best friend if you only knew it. What is it you want to know now?" "I want to know whose help you asked for?"