I as I to Brinkley in the old two-seater that afternoon. The news of this or of Angela's and Tuppy's had me greatly.
The match, you see, was one on which I had always looked with approval. Too often, when a of your is to a girl you know, you the a and the lip dubiously, that he or she, or both, should be while there is yet time.
But I have anything of this nature about Tuppy and Angela. Tuppy, when not making an of himself, is a of egg. So is Angela a of egg. And, as as being in love was concerned, it had always to me that you wouldn't have been out in them as two that as one.
True, they had had their little tiffs, on the occasion when Tuppy—with what he said was and I goofiness—had told Angela that her new her look like a Pekingese. But in every you have to budget for the occasional dust-up, and after that I had that he had learned his lesson and that from then on life would be one grand, sweet song.
And now this of relations had up through a trap.
I gave the thing the of the Wooster brain all the way down, but it to me what have the of hostilities, and I my on the in order to to Aunt Dahlia with the possible speed and learn the history from the horse's mouth. And what with all six nicely, I good time and myself with the relative the hour of the cocktail.
She to see me. In fact, she actually said she was to see me—a no other aunt on the list would have herself to, the of these near and dear ones to the of Bertram for a visit being a of horror.
"Decent of you to round, Bertie," she said.
"My place was by your side, Aunt Dahlia," I responded.
I see at a g. that the had got in her in no manner. Her map was clouded, and the conspic. by its a. I pressed her hand sympathetically, to that my for her.
"Bad this, my dear old and blood," I said. "I'm you've been having a time. You must be worried."
She emotionally. She looked like an aunt who has just into a oyster.
"Worried is right. I haven't had a peaceful moment since I got from Cannes. Ever since I put my across this threshold," said Aunt Dahlia, returning for the to the of the field, "everything's been at and sevens. First there was that mix-up about the prize-giving."
She paused at this point and gave me a look. "I had been meaning to speak to you about your in that matter, Bertie," she said. "I had some good all up. But, as you've like this, I I shall have to let you off. And, anyway, it is all for the best that you your in that way. I have an idea that this Spink-Bottle of yours is going to be good. If only he can keep off newts."
"Has he been talking about newts?"
"He has. Fixing me with a eye, like the Ancient Mariner. But if that was the I had to bear, I wouldn't mind. What I'm about is what Tom says when he talking."
"Uncle Tom?"
"I wish there was something else you call him 'Uncle Tom'," said Aunt Dahlia a little testily. "Every time you do it, I to see him turn black and start playing the banjo. Yes, Uncle Tom, if you must have it. I shall have to tell him soon about all that money at baccarat, and, when I do, he will go up like a rocket."
"Still, no Time, the great healer——"
"Time, the great healer, be blowed. I've got to a cheque for five hundred out of him for Milady's Boudoir by August the third at the latest."
I was concerned. Apart from a nephew's natural in an aunt's paper, I had always had a soft spot in my for Milady's Boudoir since I that article to it on What the Well-Dressed Man is Wearing. Sentimental, possibly, but we old do have these feelings.
"Is the Boudoir on the rocks?"
"It will be if Tom doesn't up. It needs help till it has the corner."
"But wasn't it the two years ago?"
"It was. And it's still at it. Till you've a paper for women, you don't know what are."
"And you think the of into uncle—into my uncle by marriage's are slight?"
"I'll tell you, Bertie. Up till now, when these were required, I have always been able to come to Tom in the gay, of an only child an father for chocolate cream. But he's just had a from the income-tax people for an additional fifty-eight pounds, one and threepence, and all he's been talking about since I got has been and the of and what will of us all."
I it. This Tom has a I've noticed in other very men. Nick him for the sum, and he lets out a you can at Land's End. He has the in gobs, but he up.
"If it wasn't for Anatole's cooking, I if he would to on. Thank God for Anatole, I say."
I my reverently.
"Good old Anatole," I said.
"Amen," said Aunt Dahlia.
Then the look of ecstasy, which is always the result of the mind dwell, briefly, on Anatole's cooking, died out of her face.
"But don't let me from the subject," she resumed. "I was telling you of the way hell's have been since I got home. First the prize-giving, then Tom, and now, on top of else, this Angela and Glossop."
I gravely. "I was sorry to of that. Terrible shock. What was the about?"
"Sharks."
"Eh?"
"Sharks. Or, rather, one shark. The that for the child when she was at Cannes. You Angela's shark?"
Certainly I Angela's shark. A man of not about a nearly being by of the deep. The was still green in my memory.
In a nutshell, what had was this: You know how you aquaplane. A motor-boat on ahead, a rope. You on a board, the rope, and the you along. And every now and then you your on the rope and into the sea and have to swim to your again.
A it has always to me, though many it diverting.
Well, on the occasion to, Angela had just her after taking a toss, when a great came along and into it, her into the once more. It took her a of time to on again and make the motor-boat what was up and her to safety, and that you can picture her embarrassment.
According to Angela, the at her without cessation, so that by the time help arrived, she was more like a at a public dinner than anything human. Very the child had been, I recall, and had talked of nothing else for weeks.
"I the whole vividly," I said. "But how did that start the trouble?"
"She was telling him the last night."
"Well?"
"Her and her little hands in excitement."
"No doubt."
"And of her the and to which she was entitled, what do you think this Glossop did? He sat like a of dough, as if she had been talking about the weather, and when she had finished, he took his cigarette out of his mouth and said, 'I it was only a log'!"
"He didn't!"
"He did. And when Angela how the thing had jumped and at her, he took his cigarette out of his mouth again, and said, 'Ah! Probably a flatfish. Quite harmless. No it was just trying to play.' Well, I mean! What would you have done if you had been Angela? She has pride, sensibility, all the natural of a good woman. She told him he was an and a and an idiot, and didn't know what he was talking about."
I must say I saw the girl's viewpoint. It's only about once in a lifetime that anything to one, and when it does, you don't want people taking all the colour out of it. I at having to read that where that chap, Othello, tells the girl what a of a time he'd been having among the and what not. Well, his if, after he had some particularly passage with a and was waiting for the "Oh-h! Not really?", she had said that the whole thing had no been and that the man had been a local vegetarian.
Yes, I saw Angela's point of view.
"But don't tell me that when he saw how she was about it, the didn't down?"
"He didn't. He argued. And one thing to another until, by easy stages, they had at the point where she was saying that she didn't know if he was aware of it, but if he didn't off foods and do every morning, he would be as as a pig, and he was talking about this modern of girls make-up on their faces, of which he had always disapproved. This for a while, and then there was a loud and the air was full of of their engagement. I'm about it. Thank you've come, Bertie."
"Nothing have me away," I replied, touched. "I you needed me."
"Yes."
"Quite."
"Or, rather," she said, "not you, of course, but Jeeves. The minute all this happened, I of him. The out for Jeeves. If in the whole history of there was a moment when that brain was about the home, this is it."
I think, if I had been up, I would have staggered. In fact, I'm sure I would. But it isn't so easy to when you're in an arm-chair. Only my face, therefore, how I had been by these words.
Until she spoke them, I had been all and light—the nephew prepared to every nerve to do his bit. I now froze, and the hard and set.
"Jeeves!" I said, teeth.
"Oom beroofen," said Aunt Dahlia.
I saw that she had got the angle.
"I was not sneezing. I was saying 'Jeeves!'"
"And well you may. What a man! I'm going to put the whole thing up to him. There's nobody like Jeeves."
My more marked.
"I to take issue with you, Aunt Dahlia."
"You take what?"
"Issue."
"You do, do you?"
"I do. Jeeves is hopeless."
"What?"
"Quite hopeless. He has his completely. Only a of days ago I was to take him off a case his of it was so footling. And, anyway, I this assumption, if is the word I want, that Jeeves is the only with brain. I object to the way puts up to him without me and me have a at them first."
She about to speak, but I her with a gesture.
"It is true that in the past I have sometimes fit to Jeeves's advice. It is possible that in the I may it again. But I the right to have a at these problems, as they arise, in person, without having as if Jeeves was the only in the hash. I sometimes that Jeeves, though not in the past, has been lucky than gifted."
"Have you and Jeeves had a row?"
"Nothing of the kind."
"You to have it in for him."
"Not at all."
And yet I must admit that there was a of truth in what she said. I had been about the man all day, and I'll tell you why.
You that he that 12.45 train with the luggage, while I on in order to keep a engagement. Well, just I started out to the tryst, I was about the flat, and suddenly—I don't know what put the into my head, possibly the fellow's manner had been furtive—something to to me to go and have a look in the wardrobe.
And it was as I had suspected. There was the mess-jacket still on its hanger. The hadn't packed it.
Well, as at the Drones will tell you, Bertram Wooster is a hard to outgeneral. I the thing in a brown-paper parcel and put it in the of the car, and it was on a chair in the now. But that didn't the that Jeeves had to do the dirty on me, and I a what-d'you-call-it had into my manner the above remarks.
"There has been no breach," I said. "You might it as a coolness, but no more. We did not to see to with to my white mess-jacket with the and I was to my personality. But——"
"Well, it doesn't matter, anyway. The thing that is that you are talking piffle, you fish. Jeeves his grip? Absurd. Why, I saw him for a moment when he arrived, and his were with intelligence. I said to myself 'Trust Jeeves,' and I to."
"You would be to let me see what I can accomplish, Aunt Dahlia."
"For heaven's sake, don't you start in. You'll only make worse."
"On the contrary, it may you to know that while here I on this trouble of Angela's and was successful in a plan, on the of the individual, which I am to put into at an early moment."
"Oh, my God!"
"My knowledge of nature tells me it will work."
"Bertie," said Aunt Dahlia, and her manner me as febrile, "lay off, off! For pity's sake, off. I know these plans of yours. I you want to Angela into the and push Glossop in after her to save her life, or something like that."
"Nothing of the kind."
"It's the of thing you would do."
"My is more subtle. Let me it for you."
"No, thanks."
"I say to myself——"
"But not to me."
"Do for a second."
"I won't."
"Right ho, then. I am dumb."
"And have been from a child."
I that little good result from the discussion. I a hand and a shoulder.
"Very well, Aunt Dahlia," I said, with dignity, "if you don't want to be in on the ground floor, that is your affair. But you are missing an treat. And, anyway, no how much you may like the of Scripture which, as you are aware, the more one piped, the less it danced, or to that effect, I shall on as planned. I am of Angela, and I shall no to the into her heart."
"Bertie, you chump, I to you once more. Will you off? You'll only make ten times as as they are already."
I reading in one of those once about a chap—a he would have been, no doubt, or a or some such bird as that—who, when people said the thing, laughed from lazy and a of from the Mechlin at his wrists. This was what I did now. At least, I my tie and one of those of mine. I then and out for a in the garden.
And the I ran into was Tuppy. His was furrowed, and he was at a flowerpot.
