ally quite true; but I
think I managed in my election pamphlet to give my own definition of
Liberalism. I have also more recently, on a public platform in
Glasgow, supported my friend Mr. Compton Mackenzie when he stood as a
Scottish Nationalist. Both these positions I am quite prepared to
defend; but in the latter, you might naturally prefer a Nationalist
candidate who was not only a quarter of a Scotsman. I may remark that
as the quarter is called Keith, and comes from Aberdeen, I am rather
thrilled at the name of Marischal College.

There is one other point I think it only right to mention, for your
sake as much as my own. You know the local conditions. Do you think
it likely that we should be left with one and a half votes, looking a
little ridiculous, because the miserable quarter of a Scot happens to
have the same religion as Bruce and Maxy Stuart? I only ask for
information; which you alone could supply. But it may be that the
considerations I have already mentioned have disposed of the matter.
Believe me, my gratitude is none the less.

Gilbert said of my father that he showed an embarrassing respect for
younger men. Surely Gilbert's own tone of respect must here have
embarrassed even undergraduates. The uncertainty of success or
failure only troubled him as it might affect his supporters. The
sporting element in the contest appealed to his undying boyishness.

Perhaps this chapter may find its best conclusion in the vivid
memories written down in answer to my request of one of Gilbert's
younger friends--Douglas Woodruff--who came to know him in the year
of that Silver Wedding which meant so much that I have chosen it for
the title of a chapter covering much of Chesterton's Catholic life.

Chesterton devotes a long passage in the _Autobiography_ to the
dinner given at the old Adelphi Terrace Hotel to Belloc on his
sixtieth birthday, in July 1930. I remember very well the high old
fashioned car the Chestertons used to hire in Beaconsfield, for I
accompanied him with particular instructions to deliver him safely
and on time, as was very necessary for he was in the Chair. We might
have lost him, for we went first to the Times Office where I was then
working, as I had proofs to correct before disappearing for the rest
of the evening, and he was seized with the idea that it would be very
good fun for him to enter Printing House Square and have it announced