Gussie, on arrival, proved to be still of his experience. The was pale, the gooseberry-like, the ears drooping, and the whole that of a man who has passed through the and been in the machinery. I myself up a higher on the and at him narrowly. It was a moment, I see, when was required, and I prepared to to cases.

"Well, Gussie."

"Hullo, Bertie."

"What ho."

These concluded, I that the moment had come to touch on the past.

"I you've been through it a bit."

"Yes."

"Thanks to Jeeves."

"It wasn't Jeeves's fault."

"Entirely Jeeves's fault."

"I don't see that. I my money and latchkey——"

"And now you'd Jeeves. For you will be to hear, Gussie," I said, it best to put him in touch with the position of right away, "that he is no longer your little problem."

This to it across him properly. The fell, the ears more limply. He had been looking like a fish. He now looked like a fish, one of last year's, up on some beach and left there at the of the wind and tides.

"What!"

"Yes."

"You don't that Jeeves isn't going to——"

"No."

"But, it——"

I was kind, but firm.

"You will be much off without him. Surely your terrible of that night have told you that Jeeves needs a rest. The of a occasionally. That is what has to Jeeves. I have it on for some time. He has his form. He wants his decarbonized. No this is a to you. I you came here this to his advice?"

"Of I did."

"On what point?"

"Madeline Bassett has gone to with these people in the country, and I want to know what he thinks I ought to do."

"Well, as I say, Jeeves is off the case."

"But, Bertie, it——"

"Jeeves," I said with a asperity, "is no longer on the case. I am now in charge."

"But what on earth can you do?"

I my resentment. We Woosters are fair-minded. We can make for men who have been London all night in tights.

"That," I said quietly, "we shall see. Sit and let us confer. I am to say the thing to me. You say this girl has gone to visit friends in the country. It would appear that you must go there too, and her like a poultice. Elementary."

"But I can't plant myself on a of perfect strangers."

"Don't you know these people?"

"Of I don't. I don't know anybody."

I the lips. This did to somewhat.

"All that I know is that their name is Travers, and it's a place called Brinkley Court in Worcestershire."

I my lips.

"Gussie," I said, paternally, "it was a lucky day for you when Bertram Wooster himself in your affairs. As I from the start, I can everything. This you shall go to Brinkley Court, an guest."

He like a mousse. I it must always be a for the to watch me taking hold.

"But, Bertie, you don't you know these Traverses?"

"They are my Aunt Dahlia."

"My gosh!"

"You see now," I pointed out, "how lucky you were to me you. You go to Jeeves, and what he do? He you up in and one of the false of my experience, and sends you off to fancy-dress balls. Result, of and no progress. I then take over and put you on the right lines. Could Jeeves have got you into Brinkley Court? Not a chance. Aunt Dahlia isn't his aunt. I mention these things."

"By Jove, Bertie, I don't know how to thank you."

"My dear chap!"

"But, I say."

"Now what?"

"What do I do when I there?"

"If you Brinkley Court, you would not ask that question. In those you can't miss. Great lovers through the have up the at Brinkley. The place is with atmosphere. You will with the girl in the walks. You will with her on the lawns. You will on the with her. And you will up to a point where——"

"By Jove, I you're right."

"Of course, I'm right. I've got three times at Brinkley. No resulted, but the remains. And I there without the idea of in the pash. I hadn't the of to anybody. Yet no sooner had I entered those than I myself out for the nearest girl in and my in of her. It's something in the air."

"I see what you mean. That's just what I want to be able to do—work up to it. And in London—curse the place—everything's in such a that you don't a chance."

"Quite. You see a girl alone for about five minutes a day, and if you want to ask her to be your wife, you've got to into it as if you were trying to the gold ring on a merry-go-round."

"That's right. London one. I shall be a different man in the country. What a of luck this Travers woman out to be your aunt."

"I don't know what you mean, out to be my aunt. She has been my aunt all along."

"I mean, how that it should be your aunt that Madeline's going to with."

"Not at all. She and my Cousin Angela are close friends. At Cannes she was with us all the time."

"Oh, you met Madeline at Cannes, did you? By Jove, Bertie," said the devoutly, "I wish I have her at Cannes. How she must have looked in beach pyjamas! Oh, Bertie——"

"Quite," I said, a little distantly. Even when by one of Jeeves's bombs, one doesn't want this of thing after a hard night. I touched the and, when Jeeves appeared, him to me and pencil. I then a well-worded to Aunt Dahlia, her that I was sending my friend, Augustus Fink-Nottle, to Brinkley today to her hospitality, and it to Gussie.

"Push that in at the post office you pass," I said. "She will it waiting for her on her return."

Gussie along, the and looking like a close-up of Joan Crawford, and I to Jeeves and gave him a précis of my operations.

"Simple, you observe, Jeeves. Nothing elaborate."

"No, sir."

"Nothing far-fetched. Nothing or bizarre. Just Nature's remedy."

"Yes, sir."

"This is the attack as it should have been delivered. What do you call it when two people of opposite are together in close in a spot, meeting each other every day and a of each other?"

"Is 'propinquity' the word you wish, sir?"

"It is. I on propinquity, Jeeves. Propinquity, in my opinion, is what will do the trick. At the moment, as you are aware, Gussie is a jelly when in the presence. But ask how he will in a week or so, after he and she have been helping themselves to out of the same dish day after day at the sideboard. Cutting the same ham, out and bacon—why——"

I off abruptly. I had had one of my ideas.

"Golly, Jeeves!"

"Sir?"

"Here's an of how you have to think of everything. You me mention sausages, and and ham."

"Yes, sir."

"Well, there must be nothing of that. Fatal. The note entirely. Give me that and pencil. I must Gussie without delay. What he's got to do is to create in this girl's mind the that he is away for love of her. This cannot be done by sausages."

"No, sir."

"Very well, then."

And, taking and p., I the following:

Fink-Nottle

Brinkley Court,

Market Snodsbury

Worcestershire

Lay off the sausages. Avoid the ham. Bertie.

"Send that off, Jeeves, instanter."

"Very good, sir."

I on the pillows.

"Well, Jeeves," I said, "you see how I am taking hold. You notice the I am on this case. No you now that it would pay you to study my methods."

"No doubt, sir."

"And now you aren't on to the full of the I've shown. Do you know what Aunt Dahlia up here this morning? She came to tell me I'd got to the at some she's a of at Market Snodsbury."

"Indeed, sir? I you will that a task."

"Ah, but I'm not going to do it. I'm going to it off on to Gussie."

"Sir?"

"I propose, Jeeves, to wire to Aunt Dahlia saying that I can't down, and that she him on these Borstal of hers in my stead."

"But if Mr. Fink-Nottle should decline, sir?"

"Decline? Can you see him declining? Just up the picture in your mind, Jeeves. Scene, the drawing-room at Brinkley; Gussie into a corner, with Aunt Dahlia over him making noises. I put it to you, Jeeves, can you see him declining?"

"Not readily, sir. I agree. Mrs. Travers is a personality."

"He won't have a of declining. His only way out would be to off. And he can't off, he wants to be with Miss Bassett. No, Gussie will have to toe the line, and I shall be saved from a job at which I the shuddered. Getting up on a and a short, speech to a of school-kids! Golly, Jeeves. I've been through that of thing once, what? You that time at the girls' school?"

"Very vividly, sir."

"What an I of myself!"

"Certainly I have you to advantage, sir."

"I think you might me just one more of those of yours, Jeeves. This narrow has me come over all faint."

I it must have taken Aunt Dahlia three hours or so to to Brinkley, it wasn't till well after that her arrived. It read like a that had been in a white-hot of some two minutes after she had read mine.

As follows:

Am taking legal to an nephew as murder. If it doesn't look out for yourself. Consider your limit. What do you by your friends on me like this? Do you think Brinkley Court is a or what is it? Who is this Spink-Bottle? Love. Travers.

I had some such reaction. I in vein:

Not Bottle. Nottle. Regards. Bertie.

Almost after she had the above cry, Gussie must have arrived, for it wasn't twenty minutes later when I the following:

Cipher by you has me here. Runs "Lay off the sausages. Avoid the ham." Wire key immediately. Fink-Nottle.

I replied:

Also kidneys. Cheerio. Bertie.

I had all on Gussie making a on his hostess, my on the that he was one of those timid, obsequious, teacup-passing, thin-bread-and-butter-offering yes-men of my Aunt Dahlia's type nearly always like at sight. That I had not my was proved by her next in order, which, I was pleased to note, a larger of the milk of kindness.

As follows:

Well, this friend of yours has got here, and I must say that for a friend of yours he less sub-human than I had expected. A of a pop-eyed bleater, but on the whole clean and civil, and most about newts. Am series of for him in neighbourhood. All the same I like your nerve using my house as a summer-hotel and shall have much to say to you on when you come down. Expect you thirtieth. Bring spats. Love. Travers.

To this I riposted:

On book come Brinkley Court. Deeply regret. Toodle-oo. Bertie.

Hers in reply a note:

Oh, so it's like that, is it? You and your book, indeed. Deeply my foot. Let me tell you, my lad, that you will it a more if you don't come down. If you for one moment that you are going to out of those prizes, you are very much mistaken. Deeply Brinkley Court hundred miles from London, as unable you with a brick. Love. Travers.

I then put my to the test, to win or it all. It was not a moment for economies. I let myself go of expense:

No, but it, listen. Honestly, you don't want me. Get Fink-Nottle prizes. A distributor, who will do you credit. Confidently Augustus Fink-Nottle as Master of Revels on thirty-first inst. would make sensation. Do not miss this great chance, which may again. Tinkerty-tonk. Bertie.

There was an hour of suspense, and then the arrived:

Well, all right. Something in what you say, I suppose. Consider you and contemptible, custard, but have Spink-Bottle. Stay where you are, then, and I you over by an omnibus. Love. Travers.

The relief, as you may well imagine, was stupendous. A great weight to have rolled off my mind. It was as if somebody had been Jeeves's pick-me-ups into me through a funnel. I sang as I for dinner that night. At the Drones I was so and that there were complaints. And when I got home and into the old bed, I asleep like a little child five minutes of the person the sheets. It to me that the whole might now be definitely closed.

Conceive my astonishment, therefore, when on the and up to into the tea-cup, I on the another telegram.

My sank. Could Aunt Dahlia have slept on it and her mind? Could Gussie, unable to the him, have it the night a water-pipe? With these through the bean, I open the And as I noted I a yip.

"Sir?" said Jeeves, at the door.

I read the thing again. Yes, I had got the all right. No, I had not been in the substance.

"Jeeves," I said, "do you know what?"

"No, sir."

"You know my Angela?"

"Yes, sir."

"You know Tuppy Glossop?"

"Yes, sir."

"They've off their engagement."

"I am sorry to that, sir."

"I have here a from Aunt Dahlia, this. I wonder what the was about."

"I not say, sir."

"Of you couldn't. Don't be an ass, Jeeves."

"No, sir."

I brooded. I was moved.

"Well, this means that we shall have to go to Brinkley today. Aunt Dahlia is all of a twitter, and my place is by her side. You had pack this morning, and catch that 12.45 train with the luggage. I have a engagement, so will in the car."

"Very good, sir."

I some more.

"I must say this has come as a great to me, Jeeves."

"No doubt, sir."

"A very great shock. Angela and Tuppy.... Tut, tut! Why, they like the paper on the wall. Life is full of sadness, Jeeves."

"Yes, sir."

"Still, there it is."

"Undoubtedly, sir."

"Right ho, then. Switch on the bath."

"Very good, sir."