"I'm a new man at this sort of thing, and, not having met any of the men talked of, I preferred to see them before going to the convention." Porter found that Peter had taken the trouble to go over a back file of papers, and read some of his speeches.
"Of course," Peter explained, "I want, as far as possible, to know what you think of questions likely to be matters for legislation." "The difficulty in doing that, Mr.Stirling," he was told, "is that every nominee is bound to surrender his opinions in a certain degree to the party platform, while other opinions have to be modified to new conditions." "I can see that," said Peter.

"I do not for a moment expect that what you say to-day is in any sense a pledge.

If a man's honest, the poorest thing we can do to him is to tie him fast to one course of action, when the conditions are constantly changing.

But, of course, you have opinions for the present state of things ?" Something in Peter's explanation or face pleased Mr.Porter.He demurred no more, and, for an hour before lunch, and during that meal, he talked with the utmost freedom.
"I'm not easily fooled on men," he told his secretary afterwards, "and you can say what you wish to that Stirling without danger of its being used unfairly or to injure one.

And he's the kind of man to be won by square dealing." Peter had spoken of his own district "I think," he said, "that some good can be done in the way of non-partisan legislation.