I don't know if it has to you at all, but a thing I've noticed with myself is that, when I'm by a problem which for the moment to and baffle, a good sleep will often the in the morning.
It was so on the present occasion.
The who study these claim, I believe, that this has got something to do with the mind, and very possibly they may be right. I wouldn't have said off-hand that I had a mind, but I I must without it, and no it was there, away at the old stand, all the while the Wooster was his eight hours.
For directly I opened my on the morrow, I saw daylight. Well, I don't that exactly, naturally I did. What I is that I I had the thing all out. The good old m. had delivered the goods, and I what steps must be taken in order to put Augustus Fink-Nottle among the Romeos.
I should like you, if you can me a moment of your valuable time, to your mind to that he and I had had in the garden on the previous evening. Not the bit, I don't that, but the passages of it. Having done so, you will that when he me that he touched liquor, I the a bit, that this must him as a where to girls was concerned.
And events had that my were well founded.
Put to the test, with nothing but orange juice him, he had proved a complete bust. In a calling for of of a nature calculated to go through Madeline Bassett like a red-hot through a of butter, he had said not a that a to the of modesty, a well-phrased but, in the circumstances, lecture on newts.
A girl is not to be by such tactics. Obviously, attempting to further, Augustus Fink-Nottle must be to off the of the past and fuel up. It must be a primed, Fink-Nottle who up to the Bassett for Round No. 2.
Only so the Morning Post make its ten bob, or it is, for the of the nuptials.
Having at this I the easy, and by the time Jeeves me my tea I had a plan complete in every detail. This I was about to place him—indeed, I had got as as the "I say, Jeeves"—when we were by the of Tuppy.
He came into the room, and I was to that a night's had no in the wreck's appearance. Indeed, I should have said, if anything, that he was looking more moth-eaten than when I had him last. If you can a which has just been in the and had its dinner by the cat, you will have Hildebrand Glossop as he now me.
"Stap my vitals, Tuppy, old corpse," I said, concerned, "you're looking the rims."
Jeeves from the presence in that tactful, eel-like way of his, and I the to take a seat.
"What's the matter?" I said.
He came to on the bed, and for sat at the in silence.
"I've been through hell, Bertie."
"Through where?"
"Hell."
"Oh, hell? And what took you there?"
Once more he silent, him with eyes. Following his gaze, I saw that he was looking at an photograph of my Uncle Tom in some of Masonic which on the mantelpiece. I've to with Aunt Dahlia about this photograph for years, her two suggestions: (a) To the thing; or (b) if she must it, to me in another room when I come to stay. But she to accede. She says it's good for me. A useful discipline, she maintains, teaching me that there is a to life and that we were not put into this world for only.
"Turn it to the wall, if it you, Tuppy," I said gently.
"Eh?"
"That photograph of Uncle Tom as the bandmaster."
"I didn't come here to talk about photographs. I came for sympathy."
"And you shall have it. What's the trouble? Worrying about Angela, I suppose? Well, have no fear. I have another well-laid plan for that shrimp. I'll that she will be on your sun has set."
He sharply.
"A chance!"
"Tup, Tushy!"
"Eh?"
"I 'Tush, Tuppy.' I tell you I will do it. I was just going to this plan of mine to Jeeves when you came in. Care to it?"
"I don't want to any of your plans. Plans are no good. She's gone and in love with this other bloke, and now my gizzard."
"Rot."
"It isn't rot."
"I tell you, Tuppy, as one who can read the female heart, that this Angela loves you still."
"Well, it didn't look much like it in the last night."
"Oh, you to the last night?"
"I did."
"And Angela was there?"
"She was. And your aunt. Also your uncle."
I saw that I should foot-notes. All this was new to me. I had at Brinkley Court a in my time, but I had no idea the was such a social vortex. More like a on a race-course than anything else, it to have become.
"Tell me the whole in your own words," I said, "omitting no detail, slight, for one how the most detail may be."
He the photograph for a moment with gloom.
"All right," he said. "This is what happened. You know my views about that steak-and-kidney pie."
"Quite."
"Well, about one a.m. I the time was ripe. I from my room and downstairs. The to me."
I nodded. I how do.
"I got to the larder. I it out. I set it on the table. I knife and fork. I salt, mustard, and pepper. There were some cold potatoes. I added those. And I was about to in when I a me, and there was your aunt at the door. In a blue-and-yellow gown."
"Embarrassing."
"Most."
"I you didn't know where to look."
"I looked at Angela."
"She came in with my aunt?"
"No. With your uncle, a minute or two later. He was and a pistol. Have you your uncle in and a pistol?"
"Never."
"You haven't missed much."
"Tell me, Tuppy," I asked, for I was to this, "about Angela. Was there any in her as she it on you?"
"She didn't it on me. She it on the pie."
"Did she say anything?"
"Not right away. Your uncle was the to speak. He said to your aunt, 'God my soul, Dahlia, what are you doing here?' To which she replied, 'Well, if it comes to that, my somnambulist, what are you?' Your uncle then said that he there must be in the house, as he had noises."
I again. I the trend. Ever since the window was open the year Shining Light was in the Cesarewitch for boring, Uncle Tom has had a marked about burglars. I can still my when, paying my visit after he had put on all the and attempting to the out in order to a of country air, I nearly my on a of iron grille, as by the of prison.
"'What of noises?' said your aunt. 'Funny noises,' said your uncle. Whereupon Angela—with a nasty, in her voice, the little buzzard—observed, 'I it was Mr. Glossop eating.' And then she did give me a look. It was the of wondering, look a very woman would give a man in a restaurant. The of look that makes a he's forty-six the and has great of over the of his collar. And, still speaking in the same tone, she added, 'I ought to have told you, father, that Mr. Glossop always to have a good three or four times the night. It helps to keep him going till breakfast. He has the most appetite. See, he has a large steak-and-kidney already'."
As he spoke these words, a over Tuppy. His with a light, and he the with his fist, nearly me a juicy one on the leg.
"That was what hurt, Bertie. That was what stung. I hadn't so much as started on that pie. But that's a woman all over."
"The feminine."
"She her remarks. 'You've no idea,' she said, 'how Mr. Glossop loves food. He just for it. He always eats six or seven a day, and then in again after bedtime. I think it's wonderful.' Your aunt interested, and said it her of a constrictor. Angela said, didn't she a python? And then they as to which of the two it was. Your uncle, meanwhile, about with that pistol of his till life wasn't safe in the vicinity. And the there on the table, and me unable to touch it. You to why I said I had been through hell."
"Quite. Can't have been at all pleasant."
"Presently your aunt and Angela settled their discussion, that Angela was right and that it was a that I them of. And after that we all pushed to bed, Angela me in a voice not to take the stairs too quickly. After seven or eight solid meals, she said, a man of my ought to be very careful, of the of fits. She said it was the same with dogs. When they very and overfed, you had to see that they didn't upstairs, as it them and pant, and that was for their hearts. She asked your aunt if she the late spaniel, Ambrose; and your aunt said, 'Poor old Ambrose, you couldn't keep him away from the garbage pail'; and Angela said, 'Exactly, so do be careful, Mr. Glossop.' And you tell me she loves me still!"
I did my best to encourage.
"Girlish banter, what?"
"Girlish be dashed. She's right off me. Once her ideal, I am now less than the her wheels. She with this chap, he was, at Cannes, and now she can't the of me."
I my eyebrows.
"My dear Tuppy, you are not your good in this Angela-chap-at-Cannes matter. If you will me saying so, you have got an idée fixe."
"A what?"
"An idée fixe. You know. One of those get. Like Uncle Tom's that who is to the police is in the garden, waiting for a to into the house. You keep talking about this at Cannes, and there was a at Cannes, and I'll tell you why I'm so sure about this. During those two months on the Riviera, it so that Angela and I were inseparable. If there had been somebody her, I should have it in a second."
He started. I see that this had him.
"Oh, she was with you all the time at Cannes, was she?"
"I don't she said two to else, except, of course, conv. at the dinner table or a in a at the Casino."
"I see. You that anything in the shape of mixed and moonlight she in your company?"
"That's right. It was a joke in the hotel."
"You must have that."
"Oh, rather. I've always been to Angela."
"Oh, yes?"
"When we were kids, she used to call herself my little sweetheart."
"She did?"
"Absolutely."
"I see."
He sat in thought, while I, to have set his mind at rest, with my tea. And presently there came the of a from the below, and he started like a at the of the bugle.
"Breakfast!" he said, and was off to a start, me to and ponder. And the more I and pondered, the more did it to me that now looked smooth. Tuppy, I see, despite that painful in the larder, still loved Angela with all the old fervour.
This meant that I on that plan to which I had to home the bacon. And as I had the way to out the Gussie-Bassett difficulty, there nothing more to worry about.
It was with an that I Jeeves as he came in to remove the tea tray.
