In the summer of 1924, a friend of the cricket field, A. D. Peters, set up in business as a literary agent. I was one of his first clients, and my financial position improved rapidly. In the spring of 1926 I was able to resign my desk in Henrietta Street and sail round the world.
Travel in those days was not expensive. A first-class ticket on the Messageries Maritimes, which included four months board and lodging, cost £166. My itinerary ran: Marseilles, Suez, Ceylon, Singapore, Java, Australia, the New Hebrides, Tahiti, Panama, the West Indies. I could break the journey as often as I liked within a period of two years. At that time there was no difficulty in booking a passage at the last moment. Ships were rarely crowded.
The trip began with a leisurely cruise round the Mediterranean, which provided me with the material for the story ‘The Making of a Matron’.