A sweet, sad smile played over Psmith’s face.
‘Leave me, comrade!’ he murmured.
‘Eh?’
‘Pass along, old friend, pass along.’
Resignation displaced joviality in the other’s countenance.
‘Nothing doing?’ he inquired.
‘Nothing.’
‘Well, there was no harm in trying,’ argued the other.
‘None whatever.’
‘You see,’ said the now far less jovial man confidentially, ‘you look such a perfect mug with that eyeglass that it tempts a chap.’
‘I can quite understand how it must!’
‘No offence.’
‘Assuredly not.’
The white hat disappeared through the swing doors, and Psmith returned to his quest. He engaged the attention of a middle-aged man in a snuff-coloured suit who had just come within hail.
‘There will be rain in Northumberland to-morrow,’ he said.
The man peered at him inquiringly.
‘Hey?’ he said.
Psmith repeated his observation.
‘Huh?’ said the man.
Psmith was beginning to lose the unruffled calm which made him such an impressive figure to the public eye. He had not taken into consideration the possibility that the object of his search might be deaf. It undoubtedly added to the embarrassment of the pursuit. He was moving away, when a hand fell on his sleeve.
Psmith turned. The hand which still grasped his sleeve belonged to an elegantly dressed young man of somewhat nervous and feverish appearance. During his recent vigil Psmith had noticed this young man standing not far away, and had had half a mind to include him in the platoon of new friends he was making that morning.
‘I say,’ said this young man in a tense whisper, ‘did I hear you say that there would be rain in Northumberland to-morrow?’
‘If,’ said Smith, ‘you were anywhere within the radius of a dozen yards while I was chatting with the recent deaf adder, I think it is possible that you did.’
‘Good for the crops,’ said the young man. ‘Come over here where we can talk quietly.’
§ 2
‘So you’re R. Psmith?’ said the young man, when they had made their way to a remote corner of the lobby, apart from the throng.
‘The same.’
‘I say, dash it, you’re frightfully late, you know. I told you to be here at twelve sharp. It’s nearly twelve past.’
‘You wrong me,’ said Psmith. ‘I arrived here precisely at twelve. Since when, I have been standing like Patience on a monument . . .’
‘Like what?’
‘Let it go,’ said Psmith. ‘It is not important.’
‘I asked you to wear a pink chrysanthemum. So I could recognise you, you know.’
‘I am wearing a pink chrysanthemum. I should have imagined that that was a fact that the most casual could hardly have overlooked.’
‘That thing?’ The other gazed disparagingly at the floral decoration. ‘I thought it was some kind of cabbage. I meant one of those little what-d’you-may-call-its that people do wear in their button-holes.’
‘Carnation, possibly?’
‘Carnation! That’s right.’
Psmith removed the chrysanthemum and dropped it behind his chair. He looked at his companion reproachfully.
‘If you had studied botany at school, comrade,’ he said, ‘much misery might have been averted. I cannot begin to tell you the spiritual agony I suffered, trailing through the metropolis behind that shrub.’
Whatever decent sympathy and remorse the other might have shown at these words was swept away in the shock resultant on a glance at his watch. Not for an instant during this brief return of his to London had Freddie Threepwood been unmindful of his father’s stern injunction to him to catch the twelve-fifty train back to Market Blandings. If he missed it, there would be the deuce of a lot of unpleasantness, and unpleasantness in the home was the one thing Freddie wanted to avoid nowadays; for, like a prudent convict in a prison, he hoped by exemplary behaviour to get his sentence of imprisonment at Blandings Castle reduced for good conduct.
‘Good Lord! I’ve only got about five minutes. Got to talk quick. . . . About this thing. This business. That advertisement of yours.’
‘Ah, yes. My advertisement. It interested you?’
‘Was it on the level?’
Assuredly. We Psmiths do not deceive.’
Freddie looked at him doubtfully.
‘You know, you aren’t a bit like I expected you’d be.’
‘In what respect,’ inquired Psmith, ‘do I fall short of the ideal?’
‘It isn’t so much falling short. It’s – oh, I don’t know . . . Well, yes, if you want to know, I thought you’d be a tougher specimen altogether. I got the impression from your advertisement that you were down and out and ready for anything, and you look as if you were on your way to a garden-party at Buckingham Palace.’
‘Ah!’ said Psmith, enlightened. ‘It is my costume that is causing these doubts in your mind. This is the second time this morning that such a misunderstanding has occurred. Have no misgivings. These trousers may sit well, but, if they do, it is because the pockets are empty.’
‘Are you really broke?’
As broke as the Ten Commandments.’
‘I’m hanged if I can believe it.’
‘Suppose I brush my hat the wrong way for a moment?’ said Psmith obligingly. ‘Would that help?’
His companion remained silent for a few moments. In spite of the fact that he was in so great a hurry and that every minute that passed brought nearer the moment when he would be compelled to tear himself away and make a dash for Paddington Station, Freddie was finding it difficult to open the subject he had come there to discuss.
‘Look here,’ he said at length, ‘I shall have to trust you, dash it.’
‘You could pursue no better course.’
‘It’s like this. I’m trying to raise a thousand quid . . .’
‘I regret that I cannot offer to advance it to you myself. I have, indeed, already been compelled to decline to lend a gentleman who claimed to be an old friend of mine so small a sum as a fiver. But there is a dear, obliging soul of the name of Alistair MacDougall who . . .’
‘Good Lord! You don’t think I’m trying to touch you?’
‘That impression did flit through my mind.’
‘Oh, dash it, no. No, but – well, as I was saying, I’m frightfully keen to get hold of a thousand quid.’
‘So am I,’ said Psmith. ‘Two minds with but a single thought. How do you propose to start about it? For my part, I must freely confess that I haven’t a notion. I am stumped. The cry goes round the chancelleries, “Psmith is baffled!”’
‘I say, old thing,’ said Freddie plaintively, ‘you couldn’t talk a bit less, could you? I’ve only got about two minutes.’
‘I beg your pardon. Proceed.’
‘It’s so dashed difficult to know how to begin the thing. I mean, it’s all a bit complicated till you get the hang of it. . . . Look here, you said in your advertisement that you had no objection to crime.’
Psmith considered the point.
‘Within reason – and if undetected – I see no objection to two-pennorth of crime.’
‘Well, look here . . . look here . . . Well, look here,’ said Freddie, ‘will you steal my aunt’s diamond necklace?’
Psmith placed his monocle in his eye and bent gravely toward his companion.
‘Steal your aunt’s necklace?’ he said indulgently.
‘Yes.’
‘You do not think she might consider it a liberty from one to whom she has never been introduced?’
What Freddie might have replied to this pertinent question will never be known, for at this moment, looking nervously at his watch for the twentieth time, he observed that the hands had passed the half-hour and were well on their way to twenty-five minutes to one. He bounded up with a cry.
‘I
must go! I shall miss that damned train!’
‘And meanwhile . . . ?’ said Psmith.
The familiar phrase – the words ‘And meanwhile’ had occurred at least once in every film Freddie had ever seen – had the effect of wrenching the latter’s mind back to the subject in hand for a moment. Freddie was not a clear-thinking young man, but even he could see that he had not left the negotiations suspended at a very satisfactory point. Nevertheless, he had to catch that twelve-fifty.
‘Write and tell me what you think about it,’ panted Freddie, skimming through the lobby like a swallow.
‘You have unfortunately omitted to leave a name and address,’ Psmith pointed out, following him at an easy jog-trot.
In spite of his hurry, a prudence born of much movie-seeing restrained Freddie from supplying the information asked for. Give away your name and address and you never knew what might happen.
‘I’ll write to you,’ he cried, racing for a cab.
‘I shall count the minutes,’ said Psmith courteously.
‘Drive like blazes!’ said Freddie to the chauffeur.
‘Where?’ inquired the man, not unreasonably.
‘Eh? Oh, Paddington.’
The cab whirled off, and Psmith, pleasantly conscious of a morning not ill-spent, gazed after it pensively for a moment. Then, with the feeling that the authorities of Colney Hatch or some kindred establishment had been extraordinarily negligent, he permitted his mind to turn with genial anticipation in the direction of lunch. For, though he had celebrated his first day of emancipation from Billingsgate Fish Market by rising late and breakfasting later, he had become aware by now of that not unpleasant emptiness which is the silent luncheon-gong of the soul.
§ 3
The minor problem now presented itself of where to lunch; and with scarcely a moment’s consideration he dismissed those large, noisy, and bustling restaurants which lie near Piccadilly Circus. After a morning spent with Eve Halliday and the young man who was going about the place asking people to steal his aunt’s necklace, it was imperative that he select some place where he could sit and think quietly. Any food of which he partook must be consumed in calm, even cloistral surroundings, unpolluted by the presence of a first violin who tied himself into knots and an orchestra in whose lexicon there was no such word as piano. One of his clubs seemed indicated.
In the days of his prosperity, Psmith’s father, an enthusiastic clubman, had enrolled his son’s name on the list of several institutions: and now, although the lean years had arrived, he was still a member of six, and would continue to be a member till the beginning of the new year and the consequent call for fresh subscriptions. These clubs ranged from the Drones, frankly frivolous, to the Senior Conservative, solidly worthy. Almost immediately Psmith decided that for such a mood as was upon him at the moment, the latter might have been specially constructed.
Anybody familiar with the interior of the Senior Conservative Club would have applauded his choice. In the whole of London no better haven could have been found by one desirous of staying his interior with excellently-cooked food while passing his soul under a leisurely examination. They fed you well at the Drones, too, no doubt: but there Youth held carnival, and the thoughtful man, examining his soul, was apt at any moment to have his meditations broken in upon by a chunk of bread, dexterously thrown by some bright spirit at an adjoining table. No horror of that description could possibly occur at the Senior Conservative. The Senior Conservative has six thousand one hundred and eleven members. Some of the six thousand one hundred and eleven are more respectable than the others, but they are all respectable – whether they be numbered among the oldest inhabitants like the Earl of Emsworth, who joined as a country member in 1888, or are among the recent creations of the last election of candidates. They are bald, reverend men, who look as if they are on their way to the City to preside at directors’ meetings or have dropped in after conferring with the Prime Minister at Downing Street as to the prospects at the coming by-election in the Little Wabsley Division.
With the quiet dignity which atoned for his lack in years in this stronghold of mellow worth, Psmith mounted the steps, passed through the doors which were obligingly flung open for him by two uniformed dignitaries, and made his way to the coffee-room. Here, having selected a table in the middle of the room and ordered a simple and appetising lunch, he gave himself up to thoughts of Eve Halliday. As he had confessed to his young friend Mr Walderwick, she had made a powerful impression upon him. He was tearing himself from his daydreams in order to wrestle with a mutton chop, when a foreign body shot into his orbit and blundered heavily against the table. Looking up, he perceived a long, thin, elderly gentleman of pleasantly vague aspect, who immediately began to apologise.
‘My dear sir, I am extremely sorry. I trust I have caused no damage.’
‘None whatever,’ replied Psmith courteously.
‘The fact is, I have mislaid my glasses. Blind as a bat without them. Can’t see where I’m going.’
A gloomy-looking young man with long and disordered hair, who stood at the elderly gentleman’s elbow, coughed suggestively. He was shuffling restlessly, and appeared to be anxious to close the episode and move on. A young man, evidently, of highly-strung temperament. He had a sullen air.
The elderly gentleman started vaguely at the sound of the cough.
‘Eh?’ he said, as if in answer to some spoken remark. ‘Oh, yes, quite so, quite so, my dear fellow. Mustn’t stop here chatting, eh? Had to apologise, though. Nearly upset this gentleman’s table. Can’t see where I’m going without my glasses. Blind as a bat. Eh? What? Quite so, quite so.’
He ambled off, doddering cheerfully, while his companion still preserved his look of sulky aloofness. Psmith gazed after them with interest.
‘Can you tell me,’ he asked of the waiter, who was rallying round with the potatoes, ‘who that was?’
The waiter followed his glance.
‘Don’t know who the young gentleman is, sir. Guest here, I fancy. The old gentleman is the Earl of Emsworth. Lives in the country and doesn’t often come to the club. Very absent-minded gentleman, they tell me. Potatoes, sir?’
‘Thank you,’said Psmith.
The waiter drifted away, and returned.
‘I have been looking at the guest-book, sir. The name of the gentleman lunching with Lord Emsworth is Mr Ralston McTodd.’
‘Thank you very much. I am sorry you had the trouble.’
‘No trouble, sir.’
Psmith resumed his meal.
§ 4
The sullen demeanour of the young man who had accompanied Lord Emsworth through the coffee-room accurately reflected the emotions which were vexing his troubled soul. Ralston McTodd, the powerful young singer of Saskatoon (‘Plumbs the depths of human emotion and strikes a new note’ – Montreal Star. ‘Very readable’ – Ipsilanti Herald), had not enjoyed his lunch. The pleasing sense of importance induced by the fact that for the first time in his life he was hob-nobbing with a genuine earl had given way after ten minutes of his host’s society to a mingled despair and irritation which had grown steadily deeper as the meal proceeded. It is not too much to say that by the time the fish course arrived it would have been a relief to Mr McTodd’s feelings if he could have taken up the butter-dish and banged it down, butter and all, on his lordship’s bald head.
A temperamental young man was Ralston McTodd. He liked to be the centre of the picture, to do the talking, to air his views, to be listened to respectfully and with interest by a submissive audience. At the meal which had just concluded none of these reasonable demands had been permitted to him. From the very beginning, Lord Emsworth had collared the conversation and held it with a gentle, bleating persistency against all assaults. Five times had Mr McTodd almost succeeded in launching one of his best epigrams, only to see it swept away on the tossing flood of a lecture on hollyhocks. At the sixth attempt he had managed to get it out, complete and sparkling, and the old ass opposite him had taken it
in his stride like a hurdle and gone galloping off about the mental and moral defects of a creature named Angus McAllister, who appeared to be his head gardener or something of the kind. The luncheon, though he was a hearty feeder and as a rule appreciative of good cooking, had turned to ashes in Mr McTodd’s mouth, and it was a soured and chafing Singer of Saskatoon who dropped scowlingly into an arm-chair by the window of the lower smoking-room a few moments later. We introduce Ralston McTodd to the reader, in short, at a moment when he is very near the breaking-point. A little more provocation, and goodness knows what he may not do. For the time being, he is merely leaning back in his chair and scowling. He has a faint hope, however, that a cigar may bring some sort of relief, and he is waiting for one to be ordered for him.
The Earl of Emsworth did not see the scowl. He had not really seen Mr McTodd at all from the moment of his arrival at the club, when somebody, who sounded like the head porter, had informed him that a gentleman was waiting to see him and had led him up to a shapeless blur which had introduced itself as his expected guest. The loss of his glasses had had its usual effect on Lord Emsworth, making the world a misty place in which indefinite objects swam dimly like fish in muddy water. Not that this mattered much, seeing that he was in London, for in London there was never anything worth looking at. Beyond a vague feeling that it would be more comfortable on the whole if he had his glasses – a feeling just strong enough to have made him send off a messenger boy to his hotel to hunt for them – Lord Emsworth had not allowed lack of vision to interfere with his enjoyment of the proceedings.
And, unlike Mr McTodd, he had been enjoying himself very much. A good listener, this young man, he felt. Very soothing, the way he had constituted himself a willing audience, never interrupting or thrusting himself forward, as is so often the deplorable tendency of the modern young man. Lord Emsworth was bound to admit that, much as he had disliked the idea of going to London to pick up this poet or whatever he was, the thing had turned out better than he had expected. He liked Mr McTodd’s silent but obvious interest in flowers, his tacit but warm-hearted sympathy in the matter of Angus McAllister. He was glad he was coming to Blandings. It would be agreeable to conduct him personally through the gardens, to introduce him to Angus McAllister and allow him to plumb for himself the black abysses of that outcast’s mental processes.
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