Investigation proved that the friends Angela had gone to the day with were some stately-home owners of the name of Stretchley-Budd, out in a joint called Kingham Manor, about eight miles in the direction of Pershore. I didn't know these birds, but their must have been considerable, for she herself away from them only just in time to and dress for dinner. It was, accordingly, not until coffee had been that I was able to moving. I her in the drawing-room and at once to put in train.
It was with very different from those which had the when the Bassett twenty-four hours in the same manner in this same drawing-room that I for where she sat. As I had told Tuppy, I have always been to Angela, and there is nothing I like than a in her company.
And I see by the look of her now how in need she was of my and comfort.
Frankly, I was by the prune's appearance. At Cannes she had been a happy, English girl of the best type, full of and buck. Her now was and drawn, like that of a centre-forward at a girls' who, in to a one on the shin, has just been for "sticks". In any normal gathering, her would have remark, but the of at Brinkley Court had so high that it passed unnoticed. Indeed, I shouldn't wonder if Uncle Tom, in his waiting for the end, didn't think she was looking cheerful.
I got to the in my way.
"What ho, Angela, old girl."
"Hullo, Bertie, darling."
"Glad you're at last. I missed you."
"Did you, darling?"
"I did, indeed. Care to come for a saunter?"
"I'd love it."
"Fine. I have much to say to you that is not for the public ear."
I think at this moment old Tuppy must have got a touch of cramp. He had been hard by, at the ceiling, and he now gave a like a and a small table a vase, a bowl of potpourri, two dogs, and a copy of Omar Khayyám in leather.
Aunt Dahlia a cry. Uncle Tom, who from the noise that this was at last, helped along by a coffee-cup.
Tuppy said he was sorry. Aunt Dahlia, with a groan, said it didn't matter. And Angela, having for a moment like a of the old régime by some example of on the part of some particularly of the underworld, me across the threshold. And presently I had deposited her and self on one of the benches in the garden, and was to into the of the evening.
I it best, however, doing so, to along with a little chitchat. You don't want to a job like the one I had in hand. And so for a while we spoke of topics. She said that what had her so long at the Stretchley-Budds was that Hilda Stretchley-Budd had her stop on and help with the for their servants' tomorrow night, a which she couldn't very well decline, as all the Brinkley Court staff were to be present. I said that a night's might be just what was needed to Anatole up and take his mind off things. To which she that Anatole wasn't going. On being to do so by Aunt Dahlia, she said, he had his sadly and gone on talking of returning to Provence, where he was appreciated.
It was after the by this that Angela said the was wet and she she would go in.
This, of course, was to my policy.
"No, don't do that. I haven't had a to talk to you since you arrived."
"I shall my shoes."
"Put your up on my lap."
"All right. And you can my ankles."
"Quite."
Matters were on these lines, and for some minutes we in fashion. Then the out. I a in re the effects, the hush, the stars, and the soft of the of the lake, and she said yes. Something in the in of us, and I the that it was possibly a weasel, and she said it might be. But it was plain that the girl was distraite, and I it best to waste no more time.
"Well, old thing," I said, "I've all about your little dust-up So those wedding are not going to ring out, what?"
"No."
"Definitely over, is it?"
"Yes."
"Well, if you want my opinion, I think that's a of for you, Angela, old girl. I think you're well out of it. It's a to me how you this Glossop so long. Take him for all in all, he ranks very low among the and spirits. A washout, I should him as. A oik, and a of to boot. I'd the girl who was for life to a like Tuppy Glossop."
And I a hard laugh—one of the kind.
"I always you were such friends," said Angela.
I let go another hard one, with a more top on it than the time:
"Friends? Absolutely not. One was civil, of course, when one met the fellow, but it would be to say one was a friend of his. A acquaintance, and a one at that. And then one was at with the man."
"At Eton?"
"Good heavens, no. We wouldn't have a like that at Eton. At a kid's I there. A little he was, I recollect. Covered with and generally, only on Thursdays. In short, a outsider, by all."
I paused. I was more than a perturbed. Apart from the of having to talk in this fashion of one who, when he was and me to into in costume, had always been a very dear and crony, I didn't to be anywhere. Business was not resulting. Staring into the without a yip, she appeared to be these and of mine with an easy calm.
I had another at it:
"'Uncouth' about it up. I if I've an kid than this Glossop. Ask anyone who him in those days to him in a word, and the word they will use is 'uncouth'. And he's just the same today. It's the old story. The boy is the father of the man."
She appeared not to have heard.
"The boy," I repeated, not her to miss that one, "is the father of the man."
"What are you talking about?"
"I'm talking about this Glossop."
"I you said something about somebody's father."
"I said the boy was the father of the man."
"What boy?"
"The boy Glossop."
"He hasn't got a father."
"I said he had. I said he was the father of the boy—or, rather, of the man."
"What man?"
I saw that the had a point where, unless was taken, we should be muddled.
"The point I am trying to make," I said, "is that the boy Glossop is the father of the man Glossop. In other words, each fault and that the boy Glossop to be upon by his is present in the man Glossop, and him—I am speaking now of the man Glossop—to be a and a at places like the Drones, where a of is from the inmates. Ask anyone at the Drones, and they will tell you that it was a black day for the dear old when this Glossop somehow into the list of members. Here you will a man who his face; there one who his if it wasn't for his habits. But the of opinion is that the is a and a tick, and that the moment he of wanting to into the place he should have been met with a and blackballed."
I had to pause again here, in order to take in a spot of breath, and to with the almost physical of saying these about old Tuppy.
"There are some chaps," I resumed, myself once more to the task, "who, in of looking as if they had slept in their clothes, can by they are and suave. There are others who, for all that they by being and uncouth, themselves on the of the to their and humour. But this Glossop, I to say, into neither class. In to looking like one of those that come out of trees, he is to be a of the water. No soul. No conversation. In short, any girl who, having been to to him, has managed at the hour to out is to herself lucky."
I paused once more, and an at Angela to see how the was taking. All the while I had been speaking, she had sat into the bushes, but it to me that she should not now turn on me like a tigress, according to specifications. It me why she hadn't done it already. It to me that a of what I had said, if said to a about a tiger of which she was fond, would have her—the tigress, I mean—hit the ceiling.
And the next moment you have me with a toothpick.
"Yes," she said, thoughtfully, "you're right."
"Eh?"
"That's what I've been myself."
"What!"
"'Dumb brick.' It just him. One of the six in England, I should think he must be."
I did not speak. I was to the faculties, which were in urgent need of a of first-aid treatment.
I to say, all this had come as a complete surprise. In the well-laid plan which I had just been into effect, the one I had not for was that she might to the which I expressed. I had myself for a of emotion. I was the off, the and all the of the of along those lines.
But this agreement with my I had not foreseen, and it gave me what you might call pause for thought.
She to her theme, speaking in ringing, tones, as if she loved the topic. Jeeves tell you the word I want. I think it's "ecstatic", unless that's the of you on your and have to use for. But if that is the right word, then that's what her manner was as she the of old Tuppy. If you had been able to go by the of her voice, she might have been a about an Oriental monarch, or Gussie Fink-Nottle his last of newts.
"It's so nice, Bertie, talking to somebody who takes a view about this man Glossop. Mother says he's a good chap, which is absurd. Anybody can see that he's impossible. He's and and all the time, when he perfectly well that he's talking through his hat, and he too much and eats too much and drinks too much, and I don't like the colour of his hair. Not that he'll have any in a year or two, he's thin on the top already, and he where he is he'll be as as an egg, and he's the last man who can to go bald. And I think it's disgusting, the way he all the time. Do you know, I him in the at one o'clock this morning, in a steak-and-kidney pie? There was any of it left. And you what an dinner he had. Quite disgusting, I call it. But I can't stop out here all night, talking about men who aren't a word on and haven't to tell from flatfish. I'm going in."
And about her the which she had put on as a protection against the dew, she off, me alone in the night.
Well, as a of fact, not alone, a moments later there was a of in the in of me, and Tuppy emerged.
