I think I have told you about Tuppy Glossop. He was the fellow, if you remember, who, the that we had been friends since boyhood, me one night at the Drones that I myself across the by the rings—a for one of my lissomeness—and then, having me well on the way, the last ring, thus it necessary for me to into the end in costume.
To say that I had not this deed, which to me of the title of the of the century, would be with the truth. I had it profoundly, not a little at the time and to for some weeks.
But you know how it is with these things. The heals. The abates.
I am not saying, mind you, that had the opportunity presented itself of a wet on Tuppy from some high spot or of an in his or some other of self-expression of a like nature, I would not have it eagerly; but that let me out. I to say, though I had been, it gave me no to that the fellow's life was being by the of a girl whom, despite all that had passed, I was he still loved like the dickens.
On the contrary, I was and in of the and hotsy-totsy once more these two blighters. You will have that from my to Aunt Dahlia, and if you had been present at this moment and had the look I gave Tuppy, you would have it still more.
It was one of those searching, melting looks, and was by the of the right hand and the of the left on the collar-bone.
"Well, Tuppy, old man," I said. "How are you, old man?"
My as I spoke the words, for there had been no up of the eye, no pressure of the palm, no whatever, in short, of any on his part to do Spring at the of an old friend. The man sandbagged. Melancholy, as I Jeeves saying once about Pongo Twistleton when he was trying to off smoking, had marked him for her own. Not that I was surprised, of course. In the circs., no doubt, a was only natural.
I the hand, to the shoulder, and, producing the old case, offered him a cigarette.
He took it dully.
"Are you here, Bertie?" he asked.
"Yes, I'm here."
"Just through, or come to stay?"
I for a moment. I might have told him that I had at Brinkley Court with the of Angela and himself together once more, of up the threads, and so on and so forth; and for the time for the of a I had almost to do so. Then, I reflected, better, on the whole, not. To the that I to take him and Angela and play on them as on a of might have been injudicious. Chaps don't always like being played on as on a instrument.
"It all depends," I said. "I may remain. I may push on. My plans are uncertain."
He listlessly, in the manner of a man who did not give a what I did, and out over the garden. In and appearance, Tuppy a bulldog, and his now was that of one of these animals who has just been a slice of cake. It was not difficult for a man of my to read what was in his mind, and it me no surprise, therefore, when his next had to do with the marked with a on the paper.
"You've of this of mine, I suppose? Me and Angela?"
"I have, indeed, Tuppy, old man."
"We've up."
"I know. Some little friction, I gather, in re Angela's shark."
"Yes. I said it must have been a flatfish."
"So my told me."
"Who did you it from?"
"Aunt Dahlia."
"I she me properly?"
"Oh, no."
"Beyond to you in one passage as 'this Glossop', she was, I thought, in her language for a woman who at one time with the Quorn. All the same, I see, if you don't mind me saying so, old man, that she you might have with a little more tact."
"Tact!"
"And I must admit I with her. Was it nice, Tuppy, was it to take the off Angela's like that? You must that Angela's is very dear to her. Could you not see what a sock on the it would be for the child to it by the man to she had her as a flatfish?"
I saw that he was with some powerful emotion.
"And what about my of the thing?" he demanded, in a voice with feeling.
"Your side?"
"You don't suppose," said Tuppy, with vehemence, "that I would have this for the it was if there had not been that up to it. What me to speak as I did was the that Angela, the little squirt, had just been most offensive, and I the opportunity to a of my own back."
"Offensive?"
"Exceedingly offensive. Purely on the of my having let some remark—simply by way of saying something and the going—to the that I what Anatole was going to give us for dinner, she said that I was too material and ought not always to be of food. Material, my elbow! As a of fact, I'm particularly spiritual."
"Quite."
"I don't see any in what Anatole was going to give us for dinner. Do you?"
"Of not. A ordinary of respect to a great artist."
"Exactly."
"All the same——"
"Well?"
"I was only going to say that it a that the of love should come a like this when a of contrition——"
He at me.
"You aren't that I should climb down?"
"It would be the fine, big thing, old egg."
"I wouldn't of down."
"But, Tuppy——"
"No. I wouldn't do it."
"But you love her, don't you?"
This touched the spot. He noticeably, and his mouth twisted. Quite the soul.
"I'm not saying I don't love the little blighter," he said, moved. "I love her passionately. But that doesn't the that I that what she needs most in this world is a in the pants."
A Wooster pass this. "Tuppy, old man!"
"It's no good saying 'Tuppy, old man'."
"Well, I do say 'Tuppy, old man'. Your me. One the eyebrows. Where is the fine, old, of the Glossops."
"That's all right about the fine, old, of the Glossops. Where is the sweet, gentle, of the Angelas? Telling a he was a chin!"
"Did she do that?"
"She did."
"Oh, well, girls will be girls. Forget it, Tuppy. Go to her and make it up."
He his head.
"No. It is too late. Remarks have been passed about my which it is to overlook."
"But, Tummy—Tuppy, I mean—be fair. You once told her her new her look like a Pekingese."
"It did make her look like a Pekingese. That was not abuse. It was sound, criticism, with no it but the to keep her from making an of herself in public. Wantonly to a man of when he goes up a of stairs is something very different."
I to see that the would all my address and ingenuity. If the wedding were to ring out in the little church of Market Snodsbury, Bertram had got to put in some work. I had gathered, my with Aunt Dahlia, that there had been a amount of speech the two parties, but I had not till now that had gone so far.
The of the thing gave me the pip. Tuppy had in so many that love still the Glossop bosom, and I was that, after all that occurred, Angela had not to love him. At the moment, no doubt, she might be that she him with a bottle, but in her I was prepared to that there still all the old and tenderness. Only was these two apart, and I that if Tuppy would make the move, all would be well.
I had another at it.
"She's broken-hearted about this rift, Tuppy."
"How do you know? Have you her?"
"No, but I'll she is."
"She doesn't look it."
"Wearing the mask, no doubt. Jeeves that when I my authority."
"She her nose at me as if I were a that had got out of order."
"Merely the mask. I she loves you still, and that a word from you is all that is required."
I see that this had moved him. He wavered. He did a of on the with his foot. And, when he spoke, one the in the voice:
"You think that?"
"Absolutely."
"H'm."
"If you were to go to her——"
He his head.
"I can't do that. It would be fatal. Bing, instantly, would go my prestige. I know girls. Grovel, and the best of them uppish." He mused. "The only way to work the thing would be by her off in some way that I am prepared to open negotiations. Should I a when we meet, do you think?"
"She would think you were puffing."
"That's true."
I another cigarette and gave my mind to the matter. And out of the box, as is so often the way with the Woosters, I got an idea. I the I had Gussie in the of the and ham.
"I've got it, Tuppy. There is one method of to a girl that you love her, and it just as well when you've had a and want to make it up. Don't eat any dinner tonight. You can see how that would be. She how you are to food."
He started violently.
"I am not to food!"
"No, no."
"I am not to food at all."
"Quite. All I meant——"
"This about me being to food," said Tuppy warmly, "has got to stop. I am and healthy and have a good appetite, but that's not the same as being to food. I Anatole as a master of his craft, and am always to anything he may put me, but when you say I am to food——"
"Quite, quite. All I meant was that if she sees you push away your dinner untasted, she will that your is aching, and will be the to the all clear."
Tuppy was thoughtfully.
"Push my dinner away, eh?"
"Yes."
"Push away a dinner by Anatole?"
"Yes."
"Push it away untasted?"
"Yes."
"Let us this straight. Tonight, at dinner, when the offers me a de à la financiere, or it may be, from Anatole's hands, you wish me to push it away untasted?"
"Yes."
He his lip. One the going on within. And then a of came into his face. The old used to look like that.
"All right."
"You'll do it?"
"I will."
"Fine."
"Of course, it will be agony."
I pointed out the lining.
"Only for the moment. You tonight, after is in bed, and the larder."
He brightened.
"That's right. I could, couldn't I?"
"I there would be something cold there."
"There is something cold there," said Tuppy, with cheerfulness. "A steak-and-kidney pie. We had it for today. One of Anatole's ripest. The thing I about that man," said Tuppy reverently, "the thing that I so about Anatole is that, though a Frenchman, he not, like so many of these chefs, himself to French dishes, but is always and to in with some good old English such as this steak-and-kidney to which I have alluded. A pie, Bertie, and it wasn't more than finished. It will do me nicely."
"And at dinner you will push, as arranged?"
"Absolutely as arranged."
"Fine."
"It's an excellent idea. One of Jeeves's best. You can tell him from me, when you see him, that I'm much obliged."
The cigarette from my fingers. It was as though somebody had Bertram Wooster across the with a wet dish-rag.
"You aren't that you think this I have been sketching out is Jeeves's?"
"Of it is. It's no good trying to kid me, Bertie. You wouldn't have of a like that in a years."
There was a pause. I myself up to my full height; then, that he wasn't looking at me, myself again.
"Come, Glossop," I said coldly, "we had be going. It is time we were for dinner."
