How do you mean?
You have such a great heart, such a fine soul. You are so generous, so unselfish, so chivalrous. I have always felt that about youthat you are one of the few really chivalrous men I have ever met.
Well, dashed difficult, of course, to know what to say when someone is giving you the old oil on a scale like that. I muttered an Oh, yes? or something on those lines, and rubbed the billowy portions in some embarrassment. And there was another silence, broken only by a sharp howl as I rubbed a bit too hard.
Bertie.
Hullo?
I heard her give a sort of gulp.
Bertie, will you be chivalrous now?
Rather. Only too pleased. How do you mean?
I am going to try you to the utmost. I am going to test you as few men have ever been tested. I am going
I didn't like the sound of this.
Well, I said doubtfully, always glad to oblige, you know, but I've just had the dickens of a bicycle ride, and I'm a bit stiff and sore, especially in theas I say, a bit stiff and sore. If it's anything to be fetched from upstairs
No, no, you don't understand.
I don't, quite, no.
Oh, it's so difficult.... How can I say it?... Can't you guess?
No. I'm dashed if I can.
Bertielet me go!
But I haven't got hold of you.
Release me!
Re
And then I suddenly got it. I suppose it was fatigue that had made me so slow to apprehend the nub.
What?
I staggered, and the left pedal came up and caught me on the shin. But such was the ecstasy in the soul that I didn't utter a cry.
Release you?
Yes.
I didn't want any confusion on the point.
You mean you want to call it all off? You're going to hitch up with Gussie, after all?
Only if you are fine and big enough to consent.
Oh, I am.
I gave you my promise.
Dash promises.
Then you really
Absolutely.
Oh, Bertie!
She seemed to sway like a sapling. It is saplings that sway, I believe.
A very parfait knight! I heard her murmur, and there not being much to say after that, I excused myself on the ground that I had got about two pecks of dust down my back and would like to go and get my maid to put me into something loose.
You go back to Gussie, I said, and tell him that all is well.
She gave a sort of hiccup and, darting forward, kissed me on the forehead. Unpleasant, of course, but, as Anatole would say, I can take a few smooths with a rough. The next moment she was legging it for the dining-room, while I, having bunged the bicycle into a bush, made for the stairs.
I need not dwell upon my buckedness. It can be readily imagined. Talk about chaps with the noose round their necks and the hangman about to let her go and somebody galloping up on a foaming horse, waving the reprievenot in it. Absolutely not in it at all. I don't know that I can give you a better idea of the state of my feelings than by saying that as I started to cross the hall I was conscious of so profound a benevolence toward all created things that I found myself thinking kindly thoughts even of Jeeves.
I was about to mount the stairs when a sudden What ho! from my rear caused me to turn. Tuppy was standing in the hall. He had apparently been down to the cellar for reinforcements, for there were a couple of bottles under his arm.
Hullo, Bertie, he said. You back? He laughed amusedly. You look like the Wreck of the Hesperus. Get run over by a steam-roller or something?
At any other time I might have found his coarse badinage hard to bear. But such was my uplifted mood that I waved it aside and slipped him the good news.
Tuppy, old man, the Bassett's going to marry Gussie Fink-Nottle.
Tough luck on both of them, what?
But don't you understand? Don't you see what this means? It means that Angela is once more out of pawn, and you have only to play your cards properly
He bellowed rollickingly. I saw now that he was in the pink. As a matter of fact, I had noticed something of the sort directly I met him, but had attributed it to alcoholic stimulant.
Good Lord! You're right behind the times, Bertie. Only to be expected, of course, if you will go riding bicycles half the night. Angela and I made it up hours ago.
What?
Certainly. Nothing but a passing tiff. All you need in these matters is a little give and take, a bit of reasonableness on both sides. We got together and talked things over. She withdrew my double chin. I conceded her shark. Perfectly simple. All done in a couple of minutes.
But
Sorry, Bertie. Can't stop chatting with you all night. There is a rather impressive beano in progress in the dining-room, and they are waiting for supplies.
Endorsement was given to this statement by a sudden shout from the apartment named. I recognizedas who would notAunt Dahlia's voice:
Glossop!
Hullo?
Hurry up with that stuff.
Coming, coming.
Well, come, then. Yoicks! Hard for-rard!
Tallyho, not to mention tantivy. Your aunt, said Tuppy, is a bit above herself. I don't know all the facts of the case, but it appears that Anatole gave notice and has now consented to stay on, and also your uncle has given her a cheque for that paper of hers. I didn't get the details, but she is much braced. See you later. I must rush.
To say that Bertram was now definitely nonplussed would be but to state the simple truth. I could make nothing of this. I had left Brinkley Court a stricken home, with hearts bleeding wherever you looked, and I had returned to find it a sort of earthly paradise. It baffled me.
I bathed bewilderedly. The toy duck was still in the soap-dish, but I was too preoccupied to give it a thought. Still at a loss, I returned to my room, and there was Jeeves. And it is proof of my fogged condish that my first words to him were words not of reproach and stern recrimination but of inquiry:
I say, Jeeves!
Good evening, sir. I was informed that you had returned. I trust you had an enjoyable ride.
At any other moment, a crack like that would have woken the fiend in Bertram Wooster. I barely noticed it. I was intent on getting to the bottom of this mystery.
But I say, Jeeves, what?
Sir?
What does all this mean?
You refer, sir
Of course I refer. You know what I'm talking about. What has been happening here since I left? The place is positively stiff with happy endings.
Yes, sir. I am glad to say that my efforts have been rewarded.
What do you mean, your efforts? You aren't going to try to make out that that rotten fire bell scheme of yours had anything to do with it?
Yes, sir.
Don't be an ass, Jeeves. It flopped.
Not altogether, sir. I fear, sir, that I was not entirely frank with regard to my suggestion of ringing the fire bell. I had not really anticipated that it would in itself produce the desired results. I had intended it merely as a preliminary to what I might describe as the real business of the evening.
You gibber, Jeeves.
No, sir. It was essential that the ladies and gentlemen should be brought from the house, in order that, once out of doors, I could ensure that they remained there for the necessary period of time.
How do you mean?
My plan was based on psychology, sir.
How?
It is a recognized fact, sir, that there is nothing that so satisfactorily unites individuals who have been so unfortunate as to quarrel amongst themselves as a strong mutual dislike for some definite person. In my own family, if I may give a homely illustration, it was a generally accepted axiom that in times of domestic disagreement it was necessary only to invite my Aunt Annie for a visit to heal all breaches between the other members of the household. In the mutual animosity excited by Aunt Annie, those who had become estranged were reconciled almost immediately. Remembering this, it occurred to me that were you, sir, to be established as the person responsible for the ladies and gentlemen being forced to spend the night in the garden, everybody would take so strong a dislike to you that in this common sympathy they would sooner or later come together.