Agate had a series of secretaries, of whom Alan Dent, known as Jock, served for 14 years and became the most prominent. Dent arrived on Agate's doorstep in September 1926: "He announced that his name was Alan Dent, that he resided at some absurd place near Ayr, that he had received university education, hated medicine and refused to be a doctor, that he admired my work, intended to be my secretary willy-nilly, and had walked from Scotland for that purpose. I looked at his boots and knew the last statement to be merely "ad captandum" and with intent to mollify." (From Ego , Page 91.)