The were out on a side-table, and to into a an or so of the and some soda-water on top of it was with me the work of a moment. This done, I retired to an arm-chair and put my up, the mixture with enjoyment, like Caesar having one in his the day he the Nervii.

As I let the mind on what must now be taking place in that peaceful garden, I and uplifted. Though for an in my opinion that Augustus Fink-Nottle was Nature's final word in cloth-headed guffins, I liked the man, him well, and not have more in the success of his if I, and not he, had been under the ether.

The that by this time he might easily have the and be in an of plans was very to me.

Of course, the of girl Madeline Bassett was—stars and and all that, I mean—you might say that a would have been more fitting. But in these you have got to that tastes differ. The of right-thinking men might be to a mile when they saw the Bassett, but for some she to the in Gussie, so that was that.

I had this point in my meditations, when I was by the of the door opening. Somebody came in and started moving like a toward the side-table and, the feet, I that it was Tuppy Glossop.

The of him gave me a of remorse, me, as it did, that in the of Gussie up I had about this other client. It is often that way when you're trying to two cases at once.

However, Gussie now being off my mind, I was prepared to my whole attention to the Glossop problem.

I had been much pleased by the way he had out the him at the dinner-table. No easy one, I can you, for the and had been of the quality, and there had been one dish in particular—I to the de Agnès Sorel—which might well have the most iron resolution. But he had passed it up like a professional man, and I was proud of him.

"Oh, hullo, Tuppy," I said, "I wanted to see you."

He turned, in hand, and it was easy to see that his had him sorely. He was looking like a on the of Russia which has its up a high tree.

"Yes?" he said, unpleasantly. "Well, here I am."

"Well?"

"How do you mean——well?"

"Make your report."

"What report?"

"Have you nothing to tell me about Angela?"

"Only that she's a blister."

I was concerned.

"Hasn't she come you yet?"

"She has not."

"Very odd."

"Why odd?"

"She must have noted your of appetite."

He raspingly, as if he were having trouble with the of the soul.

"Lack of appetite! I'm as as the Grand Canyon."

"Courage, Tuppy! Think of Gandhi."

"What about Gandhi?"

"He hasn't had a square for years."

"Nor have I. Or I I hadn't. Gandhi, my left foot."

I saw that it might be best to let the Gandhi slide. I to where we had started.

"She's looking for you now."

"Who is? Angela?"

"Yes. She must have noticed your sacrifice."

"I don't she noticed it at all, the little fathead. I'll it didn't register in any way whatsoever."

"Come, Tuppy," I urged, "this is morbid. Don't take this view. She must at least have that you those de Agnès Sorel. It was a and out like a thumb. And the cèpes à la Rossini——"

A from his lips:

"Will you stop it, Bertie! Do you think I am of marble? Isn't it to have sat one of Anatole's dinners by, after course, without having you making a song about it? Don't me of those nonnettes. I can't it."

I to and console.

"Be brave, Tuppy. Fix your on that cold steak-and-kidney in the larder. As the Good Book says, it in the morning."

"Yes, in the morning. And it's now about half-past nine at night. You would that up, wouldn't you? Just when I was trying to keep my mind off it."

I saw what he meant. Hours must pass he into that pie. I the subject, and we sat for a good time in silence. Then he rose and to the room in an of way, like a zoo lion who has the dinner-gong go and is the won't him in the distribution. I my tactfully, but I him kicking chairs and things. It was plain that the man's was in and his blood pressure high.

Presently he returned to his seat, and I saw that he was looking at me intently. There was that about his that me to think that he had something to communicate.

Nor was I wrong. He me on the and spoke:

"Bertie."

"Hullo?"

"Shall I tell you something?"

"Certainly, old bird," I said cordially. "I was just to that the do with a more dialogue."

"This of Angela and me."

"Yes?"

"I've been in a of solid about it."

"Oh, yes?"

"I have the pitilessly, and one thing out as clear as dammit. There has been dirty work afoot."

"I don't you."

"All right. Let me the facts. Up to the time she to Cannes Angela loved me. She was all over me. I was the blue-eyed boy in every of the term. You'll admit that?"

"Indisputably."

"And directly she came we had this bust-up."

"Quite."

"About nothing."

"Oh, it, old man, nothing? You were a tactless, what, about her shark."

"I was and about her shark. And that's my point. Do you that a about would make a girl hand a man his hat, if her were his?"

"Certainly."

It me why he couldn't see it. But then old Tuppy has been very on the shades. He's one of those large, tough, football-playing who the more sensibilities, as I've Jeeves call them. Excellent at a or walking across an opponent's in boots, but not so good when it comes to the highly-strung female temperament. It wouldn't to him that a girl might be prepared to give up her life's than her shark.

"Rot! It was just a pretext."

"What was?"

"This business. She wanted to of me, and at the excuse."

"No, no."

"I tell you she did."

"But what on earth would she want to of you for?"

"Exactly. That's the very question I asked myself. And here's the answer: Because she has in love with somebody else. It out a mile. There's no other possible solution. She goes to Cannes all for me, she comes all off me. Obviously those two months, she must have transferred her to some she met out there."

"No, no."

"Don't keep saying 'No, no'. She must have done. Well, I'll tell you one thing, and you can take this as official. If I this slimy, in the grass, he had make all the necessary at his nursing-home without delay, I am going to be very with him. I propose, if and when found, to take him by his neck, shake him till he froths, and him out and make him himself."

With which he off; and I, having him a minute or two to out of the way, rose and for the drawing-room. The of to in drawing-rooms after dinner being well marked, I to Angela there. It was my to have a word with Angela.

To Tuppy's that some bird had the girl's from him at Cannes I had given, as I have indicated, little credence, it the apple sauce of a man. It was, of course, the shark, and nothing but the shark, that had love's to go off the boil, and I was that a word or two with the at this would set right.

For, frankly, I it that a girl of her natural and tender-heartedness should not have been moved to her by what she had at dinner that night. Even Seppings, Aunt Dahlia's butler, a cold, man, had and when Tuppy those de Agnès Sorel, while the footman, by with the potatoes, had like one a vision. I to the possibility of the of the thing having been on a girl like Angela. I to her in the drawing-room with her freely, all for an reconciliation.

In the drawing-room, however, when I entered, only Aunt Dahlia met the eye. It to me that she gave me a look as I in sight, but this, having so Tuppy in his agony, I to the that she, like him, had been going light on the menu. You can't an empty aunt to like a full aunt.

"Oh, it's you, is it?" she said.

Well, it was, of course.

"Where's Angela?" I asked.

"Gone to bed."

"Already?"

"She said she had a headache."

"H'm."

I wasn't so sure that I liked the of that so much. A girl who has the lover off his not go to with if love has been in her heart. She around and him the swift, from the and to to him that, if he wants to together across a table and try to a formula, she is all for it too. Yes, I am to say I that going-to-bed a disquieting.

"Gone to bed, eh?" I musingly.

"What did you want her for?"

"I she might like a and a chat."

"Are you going for a stroll?" said Aunt Dahlia, with a of interest. "Where?"

"Oh, and thither."

"Then I wonder if you would mind doing something for me."

"Give it a name."

"It won't take you long. You know that path that past the into the garden. If you go along it, you come to a pond."

"That's right."

"Well, will you a good, piece of rope or and go that path till you come to the pond——"

"To the pond. Right."

"—and look about you till you a nice, stone. Or a large would do."

"I see," I said, though I didn't, being still fogged. "Stone or brick. Yes. And then?"

"Then," said the relative, "I want you, like a good boy, to the rope to the and tie it around your and jump into the and yourself. In a days I will send and have you up and I shall need to on your grave."

I was more than ever. And not only fogged—wounded and resentful. I reading a book where a girl "suddenly from the room, to for would come from her lips; that she would not another day in this house to be and misunderstood." I much about the same.

Then I myself that one has got to make for a woman with only about a of her, and I the red-hot that rose to the lips.

"What," I said gently, "is this all about? You with Bertram."

"Pipped!"

"Noticeably pipped. Why this ill-concealed animus?"

A from her eyes, my hair.

"Who was the ass, who was the chump, who was the who talked me, against my judgment, into going without my dinner? I might have guessed——"

I saw that I had the of her mood.

"It's all right. Aunt Dahlia. I know just how you're feeling. A on the side, what? But the will pass. If I were you, I'd and the after the have gone to bed. I am told there's a good steak-and-kidney there which will inspection. Have faith, Aunt Dahlia," I urged. "Pretty soon Uncle Tom will be along, full of and inquiries."

"Will he? Do you know where he is now?"

"I haven't him."

"He is in the study with his in his hands, about and melting pots."

"Eh? Why?"

"Because it has just been my painful to him that Anatole has notice."

I own that I reeled.

"What?"

"Given notice. As the result of that of yours. What did you a sensitive, French cook to do, if you about to all food? I that when the two came to the untouched, his were so that he like a child. And when the of the dinner followed, he came to the that the whole thing was a and calculated insult, and to hand in his portfolio."

"Golly!"

"You may well say 'Golly!' Anatole, God's gift to the juices, gone like the off the of a rose, all through your idiocy. Perhaps you now why I want you to go and jump in that pond. I might have that some would this house like a if once you your way into it and started trying to be clever."

Harsh words, of course, as from aunt to nephew, but I her no resentment. No doubt, if you looked at it from a angle, Bertram might be to have something of a floater.

"I am sorry."

"What's the good of being sorry?"

"I for what I the best."

"Another time try acting for the worst. Then we may possibly with a wound."

"Uncle Tom's not too about it all, you say?"

"He's like a soul. And any I had of that money out of him has gone."

I the thoughtfully. There was, I had to admit, in what she said. None than I how terrible a the of Anatole would be to Uncle Tom.

I have in this that this object of the with Aunt Dahlia has her is a who looks like a that has suffered, and the he so is that all those years he in making millions in the Far East put his on the blink, and the only cook that has been of pushing food into him without starting something like Old Home Week in Moscow under the third is this Anatole. Deprived of Anatole's services, all he was likely to give the wife of his b. was a dirty look. Yes, unquestionably, to have a patch, and I must admit that I myself, at moment of going to press, a little of ideas.

Confident, however, that these would come long, I the upper lip.

"Bad," I conceded. "Quite bad, a doubt. Certainly a for one and all. But have no fear, Aunt Dahlia, I will everything."

I have to the of when you're down, that it is a of which I, personally, am not capable. Aunt Dahlia, to my amazement, now did it without an effort. She was well into a arm-chair, but, nevertheless, she like billy-o. A of of and her face.

"If you to try any more of your schemes——"

I saw that it would be to try to with her. Quite plainly, she was not in the vein. Contenting myself, accordingly, with a of sympathy, I left the room. Whether she did or did not a of the Works of Alfred, Lord Tennyson, at me, I am not in a position to say. I had it on the table her, and as I closed the door I the that some had against the woodwork, but I was too pre-occupied to note and observe.

I myself for not having taken into the possible of a on the part of the whole of the company on one of Anatole's Provençal temperament. These Gauls, I should have remembered, can't take it. Their to off the at the is well known. No the man had put his whole into those de poulet, and to see them come to him must have him like a knife.

However, milk nobody any good, and it is to upon it. The now Bertram was to put right, and I was the lawn, to this end, when I a so lost-soulish that I it must have from Uncle Tom, from and come to in the garden.

Looking about me, however, I no uncles. Puzzled, I was about to my meditations, when the came again. And into the I a seated on one of the benches which so this and another same. A second and more and I had assembled the facts.

These were, in the order named, Gussie Fink-Nottle and Jeeves. And what Gussie was doing, all over the place like this, was more than I understand.

Because, I to say, there was no possibility of error. He wasn't singing. As I approached, he gave an encore, and it was question a groan. Moreover, I now see him clearly, and his whole was definitely sand-bagged.

"Good evening, sir," said Jeeves. "Mr. Fink-Nottle is not well."

Nor was I. Gussie had to make a low, noise, and I no longer it from myself that something must have gone with the works. I mean, I know marriage is a and the that he is in for it a up a bit, but I had come across a case of a newly-engaged man taking it on the so as this.

Gussie looked up. His was dull. He the thatch.

"Goodbye, Bertie," he said, rising.

I to spot an error.

"You 'Hullo,' don't you?"

"No, I don't. I goodbye. I'm off."

"Off where?"

"To the garden. To myself."

"Don't be an ass."

"I'm not an ass.... Am I an ass, Jeeves?"

"Possibly a little injudicious, sir."

"Drowning myself, you mean?"

"Yes, sir."

"You think, on the whole, not myself?"

"I should not it, sir."

"Very well, Jeeves. I accept your ruling. After all, it would be for Mrs. Travers to a in her pond."

"Yes, sir."

"And she has been very to me."

"Yes, sir."

"And you have been very to me, Jeeves."

"Thank you, sir."

"So have you, Bertie. Very kind. Everybody has been very to me. Very, very kind. Very indeed. I have no to make. All right, I'll go for a walk instead."

I him with as he off into the dark.

"Jeeves," I said, and I am free to admit that in my I like a itself to the attention of the parent sheep, "what the is all this?"

"Mr. Fink-Nottle is not himself, sir. He has passed through a trying experience."

I to put together a of previous events.

"I left him out here with Miss Bassett."

"Yes, sir."

"I had her up."

"Yes, sir."

"He what he had to do. I had him in lines and business."

"Yes, sir. So Mr. Fink-Nottle me."

"Well, then——"

"I to say, sir, that there was a hitch."

"You mean, something wrong?"

"Yes, sir."

I not fathom. The brain to be on its throne.

"But how anything go wrong? She loves him, Jeeves."

"Indeed, sir?"

"She definitely told me so. All he had to do was propose."

"Yes sir."

"Well, didn't he?"

"No, sir."

"Then what the did he talk about?"

"Newts, sir."

"Newts?"

"Yes, sir."

"Newts?"

"Yes, sir."

"But why did he want to talk about newts?"

"He did not want to talk about newts, sir. As I from Mr. Fink-Nottle, nothing have been more to his plans."

I couldn't the trend.

"But you can't a man to talk about newts."

"Mr. Fink-Nottle was the of a of nervousness, sir. Upon himself alone with the lady, he to having his morale. In such circumstances, talk at random, saying the thing that to enter their heads. This, in Mr. Fink-Nottle's case, would to have been the newt, its in and in health."

The from my eyes. I understood. I had had the same of thing to me in moments of crisis. I once a with the at one of my and him up for nearly ten minutes with a about a Scotchman, an Irishman, and a Jew. Purely automatic. The more he to jab, the more I said "Hoots, mon," "Begorrah," and "Oy, oy". When one one's nerve, one babbles.

I put myself in Gussie's place. I the scene. There he and the Bassett were, alone together in the stillness. No doubt, as I had advised, he had the about and princesses, and so forth, and then had at the point where he had to say that about having something to say to her. At this, I take it, she her and said, "Oh, yes?"

He then, I should imagine, said it was something very important; to which her response would, one assumes, have been something on the lines of "Really?" or "Indeed?" or possibly just the of the breath. And then their met, just as mine met the dentist's, and something to catch him in the of the and black and he his voice starting to about newts. Yes, I the psychology.

Nevertheless, I myself Gussie. On that he was the note in this manner, he ought, of course, to have out, if it had meant there saying nothing. No how much of a he was in, he should have had to see that he was a into the works. No girl, when she has been to that a man is about to his in a of passion, to him the whole in of an address on Salamandridae.

"Bad, Jeeves."

"Yes, sir."

"And how long did this continue?"

"For some not time, I gather, sir. According to Mr. Fink-Nottle, he Miss Bassett with very full and complete not only with respect to the common newt, but also the and varieties. He to her how newts, the season, live in the water, upon tadpoles, larvae, and crustaceans; how, later, they make their way to the land and eat and worms; and how the newly has three of long, plumlike, gills. And he was just that differ from in the shape of the tail, which is compressed, and that a marked sexual in most species, when the lady rose and said that she she would go to the house."

"And then——"

"She went, sir."

I musing. More and more, it was to be in upon me what a particularly difficult Gussie was to help. He to so marked an to and finish. With toil, you him into a position where all he had to do was ahead, and he didn't ahead, but off sideways, missing the completely.

"Difficult, Jeeves."

"Yes, sir."