TOD SLOAN 



quence have been thought rude by those who were 

 really anxious to do me good and whom to know was 

 an honour and privilege. But — do you get me ? — 

 there were so many of the " also rans " who got round 

 me, scraped introductions, and then traded on the 

 acquaintance and used me in every way to pull their 

 stunts and put it across the simple people who were 

 so ready to believe anything from people who could 

 say they " knew Sloan " ! " Save me from my 

 friends " is an expression that Lord William taught me. 



Tlie truth was that I could never find out, to the 

 extent I wanted to, who really were those I should 

 be with. I knew quick enough those I liked, and I 

 suppose it can be said that I stuck to those whose friend- 

 ship I valued. There were others however. A chance 

 meeting, a cocktail, just one odd word — it doesn't 

 matter what it was about — ^and I was quite liable to 

 hear that " Sloan had said " — well — this, that and the 

 other. These things got round and about one or two 

 of the big London hotels, and I heard afterwards even 

 that syndicates had been formed to back horses, and 

 that I was supposed to supply the " information " ! 

 It made me mad sometimes. " Straight from the 

 horse's mouth," was nothing to what I was supposed 

 to have said on various occasions in order to do mugs 

 a good turn. I know that there was all sorts of money 

 torn from various people who used to be about. A 

 few of the " steerers " didn't settle, and some were 

 even supposed to be betting for me, but I had no 

 more to do with them than nine hundred and ninety- 

 nine people out of a thousand who read this book. 



Round about the Savoy certain people used to look 

 upon me as a curiosity, and I felt sometimes I would 

 sooner be up in my room reading the papers from over 

 home. It was the staring and the remarks which made 



no 



