Most in my position, I imagine, would have all the of the without a bite, but we Woosters have an of going to the of things, and I don't it was much more than ten minutes after I had started I saw what had to be done.
What was needed to out, I perceived, was a heart-to- talk with Angela. She had all the trouble by her mutton- in saying "Yes" of "No" when Gussie, in the of mixed drinks and excitement, had up. She must be properly off and to return him to store. A of an hour later, I had her to the summer-house in which she was taking a and was seating myself by her side.
"Angela," I said, and if my voice was stern, well, wouldn't have been, "this is all perfect drivel."
She to come out of a reverie. She looked at me inquiringly.
"I'm sorry, Bertie, I didn't hear. What were you talking about?"
"I was not talking drivel."
"Oh, sorry, I you said you were."
"Is it likely that I would come out here in order to talk drivel?"
"Very likely."
I it best to off and approach the from another angle.
"I've just been Tuppy."
"Oh?"
"And Gussie Fink-Nottle."
"Oh, yes?"
"It that you have gone and got to the latter."
"Quite right."
"Well, that's what I meant when I said it was all perfect drivel. You can't possibly love a like Gussie."
"Why not?"
"You can't."
Well, I to say, of she couldn't. Nobody love a like Gussie a like the Bassett. The wasn't on the board. A chap, of course, in many ways—courteous, amiable, and just the to tell you what to do till the doctor came, if you had a on your hands—but not of Mendelssohn's March timber. I have no that you have by the hour in England's most without the safety of a single girl of Mrs. Augustus Fink-Nottle without an anaesthetic.
I put this to her, and she was to admit the of it.
"All right, then. Perhaps I don't."
"Then what," I said keenly, "did you want to go and to him for, you fathead?"
"I it would be fun."
"Fun!"
"And so it has been. I've had a of fun out of it. You should have Tuppy's when I told him."
A light upon me.
"Ha! A gesture!"
"What?"
"You got to Gussie just to score off Tuppy?"
"I did."
"Well, then, that was what I was saying. It was a gesture."
"Yes, I you call it that."
"And I'll tell you something else I'll call it—viz. a low trick. I'm at you, Angela."
"I don't see why."
I the lip about an inch. "Being a female, you wouldn't. You are like that. You off the without a pang. You yourselves on it. Look at Jael, the wife of Heber."
"Where did you of Jael, the wife of Heber?"
"Possibly you are not aware that I once a Scripture-knowledge prize at school?"
"Oh, yes. I Augustus it in his speech."
"Quite," I said, a little hurriedly. I had no wish to be of Augustus's speech. "Well, as I say, look at Jael, the wife of Heber. Dug into the guest's while he was asleep, and then about the place like a Girl Guide. No wonder they say, 'Oh, woman, woman!'"
"Who?"
"The who do. Coo, what a sex! But you aren't to keep this up, of course?"
"Keep what up?"
"This of being to Gussie."
"I am."
"Just to make Tuppy look silly."
"Do you think he looks silly?"
"I do."
"So he ought to."
I to the idea that I wasn't making headway. I when I that Scripture-knowledge prize, having to go into the about Balaam's ass. I can't what they were, but I still a of of something its in and its ears and to co-operate; and it to me that this was what Angela was doing now. She and Balaam's were, so to speak, sisters under the skin. There's a word with r——"re" something——"recal" something—No, it's gone. But what I am at is that is what this Angela was herself.
"Silly geezer," I said.
She pinkened.
"I'm not a geezer."
"You are a geezer. And, what's more, you know it."
"I don't know anything of the kind."
"Here you are, Tuppy's life, Gussie's life, all for the of a score."
"Well, it's no of yours."
I sat on this promptly:
"No of mine when I see two I used to go to with wrecked? Ha! Besides, you know you're about Tuppy."
"I'm not!"
"Is that so? If I had a for every time I've you at him with the in your eyes——"
She at me, but without the lovelight.
"Oh, for sake, go away and your head, Bertie!"
I myself up.
"That," I replied, with dignity, "is just what I am going to go away and boil. At least, I mean, I shall now you. I have said my say."
"Good."
"But permit me to add——"
"I won't."
"Very good," I said coldly. "In that case, tonk."
And I meant it to sting.
"Moody" and "discouraged" were about the two you would have to me as I left the summer-house. It would be to that I had results from this little chat.
I was at Angela. Odd how you that every girl is at a until something goes with her love affair. This and I had been meeting since the days when I and she hadn't any teeth, yet only now was I to on to her depths. A simple, jolly, she had always me as—the you more or less on not to a fly. But here she was now laughing heartlessly—at least, I to her laugh heartlessly—like something cold and out of a talkie, and on her hands in her to Tuppy's in to the grave.
I've said it before, and I'll say it again—girls are rummy. Old Pop Kipling said a word than when he that about the f. of the s. being more d. than the m.
It to me in the circs. that there was but one thing to do—that is for the dining-room and take a at the cold of which Jeeves had spoken. I in urgent need of sustenance, for the had me a bit. There is no the that this naked-emotion a chap's and puts him in the for a good at the and ham.
To the dining-room, accordingly, I repaired, and had the when I Aunt Dahlia at the sideboard, into mayonnaise.
The from me a quick "Oh, ah," for I was embarrassed. The last time this relative and I had a tête-à-tête, it will be remembered, she had sketched out plans for me in the kitchen-garden pond, and I was not sure what my present with her was.
I was to her in mood. Nothing have the with which she her fork.
"Hallo, Bertie, you old ass," was her very greeting. "I I shouldn't you away from the food. Try some of this salmon. Excellent."
"Anatole's?" I queried.
"No. He's still in bed. But the has an streak. It to have come home to her that she isn't for a of in the Sahara Desert, and she has put out something fit for consumption. There is good in the girl, after all, and I she herself at the dance."
I out a of salmon, and we into conversation, of this servants' at the Stretchley-Budds and idly, I recall, as to what Seppings, the butler, would look like, doing the rumba.
It was not till I had up the and was on a second that the of Gussie came up. Considering what had passed at Market Snodsbury that afternoon, it was one which I had been her to touch on earlier. When she did touch on it, I see that she had not yet been of Angela's engagement.
"I say, Bertie," she said, fruit salad. "This Spink-Bottle."
"Nottle."
"Bottle," the aunt firmly. "After that of his this afternoon, Bottle, and nothing but Bottle, is how I shall always think of him. However, what I was going to say was that, if you see him, I wish you would tell him that he has an old woman very, very happy. Except for the time when the over a and the steps, I don't think I have had a more moment than when good old Bottle started Tom off from the platform. In fact, I his whole performance in the most perfect taste."
I not but demur.
"Those to myself——"
"Those were what I liked next best. I they were fine. Is it true that you when you that Scripture-knowledge prize?"
"Certainly not. My victory was the outcome of the most and efforts."
"And how about this we of? Are you a pessimist, Bertie?"
I have told her that what was in this house was making me one, but I said no, I wasn't.
"That's right. Never be a pessimist. Everything is for the best in this best of all possible worlds. It's a long that has no turning. It's always the dawn. Have patience and all will come right. The sun will shine, although the day's a one.... Try some of this salad."
I her advice, but as I the spoon my were elsewhere. I was perplexed. It may have been the that I had been with so many bowed-down that this of hers so bizarre, but was what I it.
"I you might have been a peeved," I said.
"Peeved?"
"By Gussie's on the this afternoon. I that I had the and the brow."
"Nonsense. What was there to be about? I took the whole thing as a great compliment, proud to that any drink from my have produced such a jag. It one's in post-war whisky. Besides, I couldn't be at anything tonight. I am like a little child its hands and dancing in the sunshine. For though it has been some time a move on, Bertie, the sun has at last through the clouds. Ring out those bells. Anatole has his notice."
"What? Oh, very congratulations."
"Thanks. Yes, I on him like a after I got this afternoon, and finally, he would ne'er consent, he consented. He on, be, and the way I look at it now is that God's in His and all's right with——"
She off. The door had opened, and we were plus a butler.
"Hullo, Seppings," said Aunt Dahlia. "I you had gone."
"Not yet, madam."
"Well, I you will all have a good time."
"Thank you, madam."
"Was there something you wanted to see me about?"
"Yes, madam. It is with to Monsieur Anatole. Is it by your wish, madam, that Mr. Fink-Nottle is making at Monsieur Anatole through the of his bedroom?"
