Pained and surprised, I would have spoken, but the stuff I had thought was anchovy paste had turned out to be something far more gooey and adhesive. It seemed to wrap itself round the tongue and impede utterance like a gag. And while I was still endeavouring to clear the vocal cords for action, she went on:

  'Do you realize what you started when you sent that Spink- Bottle man down here? As regards his getting blotto and turning the prize-giving ceremonies at Market Snodsbury Grammar School into a sort of two-reel comic film, I will say nothing, for frankly I enjoyed it. But when he comes leering at Anatole through skylights, just after I had with infinite pains and tact induced him to withdraw his notice, and makes him so temperamental that he won't hear of staying on after tomorrow –'

  The paste stuff gave way. I was able to speak.

  'What?'

  'Yes, Anatole goes tomorrow, and I suppose poor old Tom will have indigestion for the rest of his life. And that is not all. I have just seen Angela, and she tells me she is engaged to this Bottle.'

  'Temporarily, yes,' I had to admit.

  'Temporarily be blowed. She's definitely engaged to him and talks with a sort of hideous coolness of getting married in October. So there it is. If the prophet Job were to walk into the room at this moment, I could sit swapping hard-luck stories with him till bedtime. Not that Job was in my class.'

  'He had boils.'

  'Well, what are boils?'

  'Dashed painful, I understand.'

  'Nonsense. I'd take all the boils on the market in exchange for my troubles. Can't you realize the position? I've lost the best cook in England. My husband, poor soul, will probably die of dyspepsia. And my only daughter, for whom I had dreamed such a wonderful future, is engaged to be married to an inebriated newt fancier. And you talk about boils!'

  I corrected her on a small point:

  'I don't absolutely talk about boils. I merely mentioned that Job had them. Yes, I agree with you, Aunt Dahlia, that things are not looking too oojah-cum-spiff at the moment, but be of good cheer. A Wooster is seldom baffled for more than the nonce.'

  'You rather expect to be coming along shortly with another of your schemes?'

  'At any minute.'

  She sighed resignedly.

  'I thought as much. Well, it needed but this. I don't see how things could possibly be worse than they are, but no doubt you will succeed in making them so. Your genius and insight will find the way. Carry on, Bertie. Yes, carry on. I am past caring now. I shall even find a faint interest in seeing into what darker and profounder abysses of hell you can plunge this home. Go to it, lad.. .What's that stuff you're eating?'

  'I find it a little difficult to classify. Some sort of paste on toast. Rather like glue flavoured with beef extract.'

  'Gimme,' said Aunt Dahlia listlessly.

  'Be careful how you chew,' I advised. 'It sticketh closer than a brother... Yes, Jeeves?'

  The man had materialized on the carpet. Absolutely noiseless, as usual.

  'A note for you, sir.'

  'A note for me, Jeeves?'

  'A note for you, sir.'

  'From whom, Jeeves?'

  'From Miss Bassett, sir.'

  'From whom, Jeeves?'

  'From Miss Bassett, sir.'

  'From Miss Bassett, Jeeves?'

  'From Miss Bassett, sir.'

  At this point, Aunt Dahlia, who had taken one nibble at her whatever-it-was-on-toast and laid it down, begged us – a little fretfully, I thought – for heaven's sake to cut out the cross-talk vaudeville stuff, as she had enough to bear already without having to listen to us doing our imitation of the Two Macs. Always willing to oblige, I dismissed Jeeves with a nod, and he flickered for a moment and was gone. Many a spectre would have been less slippy.

  'But what,' I mused, toying with the envelope, 'can this female be writing to me about?'

  'Why not open the damn thing and see?'

  'A very excellent idea,' I said, and did so.

  'And if you are interested in my movements,' proceeded Aunt Dahlia, heading for the door, 'I propose to go to my room, do some Yogi deep breathing, and try to forget.'

  'Quite,' I said absently, skimming p.1. And then, as I turned over, a sharp howl broke from my lips, causing Aunt Dahlia to shy like a startled mustang.

  'Don't do it!' she exclaimed, quivering in every limb.

  'Yes, but dash it –'

  'What a pest you are, you miserable object,' she sighed. 'I remember years ago, when you were in your cradle, being left alone with you one day and you nearly swallowed your rubber comforter and started turning purple. And I, ass that I was, took it out and saved your life. Let me tell you, young Bertie, it will go very hard with you if you ever swallow a rubber comforter again when only I am by to aid.'

  'But, dash it!' I cried. 'Do you know what's happened? Madeline Bassett says she's going to marry me!'

  'I hope it keeps fine for you,' said the relative, and passed from the room looking like something out of an Edgar Allan Poe story.

  CHAPTER 21

  I don't suppose I was looking so dashed unlike something out of an Edgar Allan Poe story myself, for, as you can readily imagine, the news item which I have just recorded had got in amongst me properly. If the Bassett, in the belief that the Wooster heart had long been hers and was waiting ready to be scooped in on demand, had decided to take up her option, I should, as a man of honour and sensibility, have no choice but to come across and kick in. The matter was obviously not one that could be straightened out with a curt nolle prosequi. All the evidence, therefore, seemed to point to the fact that the doom had come upon me and, what was more, had come to stay.

  And yet, though it would be idle to pretend that my grip on the situation was quite the grip I would have liked it to be, I did not despair of arriving at a solution. A lesser man, caught in this awful snare, would no doubt have thrown in the towel at once and ceased to struggle; but the whole point about the Woosters is that they are not lesser men.

  By way of a start, I read the note again. Not that I had any hope that a second perusal would enable me to place a different construction on its contents, but it helped to fill in while the brain was limbering up. I then, to assist thought, had another go at the fruit salad, and in addition ate a slice of sponge cake. And it was as I passed on to the cheese that the machinery started working. I saw what had to be done.

  To the question which had been exercising the mind – viz., can Bertram cope? – I was now able to reply with a confident 'Absolutely'.

  The great wheeze on these occasions of dirty work at the crossroads is not to lose your head but to keep cool and try to find the ringleaders. Once find the ringleaders, and you know where you are.

  The ringleader here was plainly the Bassett. It was she who started the whole imbroglio by chucking Gussie, and it was clear that before anything could be done to solve and clarify, she must be induced to revise her views and take him on again. This would put Angela back into circulation, and that would cause Tuppy to simmer down a bit, and then we could begin to get somewhere.

  I decided that as soon as I had had another morsel of cheese I would seek this Bassett out and be pretty eloquent.

  And at this moment in she came. I might have foreseen that she would be turning up shortly. I mean to say, hearts may ache, but if they know that there is a cold collation set out in the dining-room, they are pretty sure to come popping in sooner or later.

  Her eyes, as she entered the room, were fixed on the salmon mayonnaise, and she would no doubt have made a bee-line for it and started getting hers, had I not, in the emotion of seeing her, dropped a glass of the best with which I was endeavouring to bring about a calmer frame of mind. The noise caused her to turn, and for an instant embarrassment supervened. A slight flush mantled the cheek, and the eyes popped a bit.

  'Oh!' she said.

  I have always found that there is nothing that helps to ease you over one of these awkward moments like a spot of stage business. Find something to do with your hands, and it's half the battle. I grabbed a plate and hastened forward.

  'A touch of salmon?'

  'Thank you.'

  'With a suspicion of salad?'

  'If you please.'

  'And to drink? Name the poison.'

  'I think I would like a little orange juice.'

  She gave a gulp. Not at the orange juice, I don't mean, because she hadn't got it yet, but at all the tender associations those two words provoked. It was as if someone had mentioned spaghetti to the relict of an Italian organ-grinder. Her face flushed a deeper shade, she registered anguish, and I saw that it was no longer within the sphere of practical politics to try to confine the conversation to neutral topics like cold boiled salmon.

  So did she, I imagine, for when I, as a preliminary to getting down to brass tacks, said 'Er', she said 'Er', too, simultaneously, the brace of 'Ers' clashing in mid-air.

  'I'm sorry.'

  'I beg your pardon.'

  'You were saying –'

  'You were saying –'

  'No, please go on.'

  'Oh, right-ho.'

  I straightened the tie, my habit when in this girl's society, and had at it:

  'With reference to yours of even date –'

  She flushed again, and took a rather strained forkful of salmon.

  'You got my note?'

  'Yes, I got your note.'

  'I gave it to Jeeves to give it to you.'

  'Yes, he gave it to me. That's how I got it.'

  There was another silence. And as she was plainly shrinking from talking turkey, I was reluctantly compelled to do so. I mean, somebody had got to. Too dashed silly, a male and female in our position simply standing eating salmon and cheese at one another without a word.

  'Yes, I got it all right.'

  'I see. You got it.'

  'Yes, I got it. I've just been reading it. And what I was rather wanting to ask you, if we happened to run into each other, was – well, what about it?'

  'What about it?'

  'That's what I say: What about it?'

  'But it was quite clear.'

  'Oh, quite. Perfectly clear. Very well expressed and all that. But – I mean – Well, I mean, deeply sensible of the honour, and so forth – but – Well, dash it!'

  She had polished off her salmon, and now put the plate down.

  'Fruit salad?'

  'No, thank you.'

  'Spot of pie?'

  'No, thanks.'

  'One of those glue things on toast?'

  'No, thank you.'

  She took a cheese straw. I found a cold egg which I had overlooked. Then I said 'I mean to say' just as she said 'I think I know', and there was another collision.

  'I beg your pardon.'

  'I'm sorry.'

  'Do go on.'

  'No, you go on.'

  I waved my cold egg courteously, to indicate that she had the floor, and she started again:

  'I think I know what you are trying to say. You are surprised.'

  'Yes.'

  'You are thinking of –'

  'Exactly.'

  '–Mr Fink-Nottle.'

  'The very man.'

  'You find what I have done hard to understand.'

  'Absolutely.'

  'I don't wonder.'

  'I do.'

  'And yet it is quite simple.'

  She took another cheese straw. She seemed to like cheese straws.

  'Quite simple, really. I want to make you happy.'

  'Dashed decent of you.'

  'I am going to devote the rest of my life to making you happy.'

  'A very matey scheme.'

  'I can at least do that. But – may I be quite frank with you, Bertie?'

  'Oh, rather.'

  'Then I must tell you this. I am fond of you. I will marry you. I will do my best to make you a good wife. But my affection for you can never be the flame-like passion I felt for Augustus.'

  'Just the very point I was working round to. There, as you say, is the snag. Why not chuck the whole idea of hitching up with me? Wash it out altogether. I mean, if you love old Gussie –'

  'No longer.'

  'Oh, come.'

  'No. What happened this afternoon has killed my love. A smear of ugliness has been drawn across a thing of beauty, and I can never feel towards him as I did.'

  I saw what she meant, of course. Gussie had bunged his heart at her feet; she had picked it up, and, almost immediately after doing so, had discovered that he had been stewed to the eyebrows all the time. The shock must have been severe. No girl likes to feel that a chap has got to be thoroughly plastered before he can ask her to marry him. It wounds the pride.

  Nevertheless, I persevered.

  'But have you considered,' I said, 'that you may have got a wrong line on Gussie's performance this afternoon? Admitted that all the evidence points to a more sinister theory, what price him simply having got a touch of the sun? Chaps do get touches of the sun, you know, especially when the weather's hot.'

  She looked at me, and I saw that she was putting in a bit of the old drenched-irises stuff.

  'It was like you to say that, Bertie. I respect you for it.'

  'Oh, no.'

  'Yes. You have a splendid, chivalrous soul.'

  'Not a bit.'

  'Yes, you have. You remind me of Cyrano.'

  'Who?'

  'Cyrano de Bergerac.'

  'The chap with the nose?'

  'Yes.'

  I can't say I was any too pleased. I felt the old beak furtively. It was a bit on the prominent side, perhaps, but, dash it, not in the Cyrano class. It began to look as if the next thing this girl would do would be to compare me to Schnozzle Durante.

  'He loved, but pleaded another's cause.'

  'Oh, I see what you mean now.'

  'I like you for that, Bertie. It was fine of you – fine and big. But it is no use. There are things which kill love. I can never forget Augustus, but my love for him is dead. I will be your wife.'

  Well, one has to be civil.

  'Right ho,' I said. 'Thanks awfully.'

  Then the dialogue sort of poofed out once more, and we stood eating cheese straws and cold eggs respectively in silence. There seemed to exist some little uncertainty as to what the next move was.

  Fortunately, before embarrassment could do much more supervening, Angela came in, and this broke up the meeting. The Bassett announced our engagement, and Angela kissed her and said she hoped she would be very, very happy, and the Bassett kissed her and said she hoped she would be very, very happy with Gussie, and Angela said she was sure she would, because Augustus was such a dear, and the Bassett kissed her again, and Angela kissed her again, and, in a word, the whole thing got so bally feminine that I was glad to edge away.

  I would have been glad to do so, of course, in any case, for if ever there was a moment when it was up to Bertram to think, and think hard, this moment was that moment.

  It was, it seemed to me, the end. Not even on the occasion, some years earlier, when I had inadvertently become betrothed to Tuppy's frightful Cousin Honoria, had I experienced a deeper sense of being waist high in the gumbo and about to sink without trace. I wandered out into the garden, smoking a tortured gasper, with the iron well embedded in the soul. And I had fallen into a sort of trance, trying to picture what it would be like having the Bassett on the premises for the rest of my life and at the same time, if you follow me, trying not to picture what it would be like, when I charged into something which might have been a tree, but was not – being, in point of fact, Jeeves.

  'I beg your pardon, sir,' he said. 'I should have moved to one side.'

  I did not reply. I stood looking at him in silence. For the sight of him had opened up a new line of thought.

  This Jeeves, now, I reflected. I had formed the opinion that he had lost his grip and was no longer the force he had been, but was it not possible, I asked myself, that I might be mistaken? Start him off exploring avenues and might he not discover one through which I would be enabled to sneak off to safety, leaving no hard feelings behind? I found myself answering that it was quite on the cards that he might.

  After all, his head still bulged out at the back as of old. One noted in the eyes the same intelligent glitter.

  Mind you, after what had passed between us in the matter of that white mess jacket with the brass buttons, I was not prepared absolutely to hand over to the man. I would, of course, merely take him into consultation. But, recalling some of his earlier triumphs – the Sipperley Case, the Episode of My Aunt Agatha and the Dog McIntosh, and the smoothly handled Affair of Uncle George and The Barmaid's Niece were a few that sprang to my mind – I felt justified at least in offering him the opportunity of coming to the aid of the young master in his hour of peril.

  But before proceeding further, there was one thing that had got to be understood between us, and understood clearly.

  'Jeeves,' I said, 'a word with you.'

  'Sir?'

  'I am up against it a bit, Jeeves.'

  'I am sorry to hear that, sir. Can I be of any assistance?'

  'Quite possibly you can, if you have not lost your grip. Tell me frankly, Jeeves, are you in pretty good shape mentally?'

  'Yes, sir.'

  'Still eating plenty of fish?'

  'Yes, sir.'

  'Then it may be all right. But there is just one point before I begin. In the past, when you have contrived to extricate self or some pal from some little difficulty, you have frequently shown a disposition to take advantage of my gratitude to gain some private end. Those purple socks, for instance. Also the plus fours and the Old Etonian spats. Choosing your moment with subtle cunning, you came to me when I was weakened by relief and got me to get rid of them. And what I am saying now is that if you are successful on the present occasion there must be no rot of that description about that mess jacket of mine.'

  'Very good, sir.'

  'You will not come to me when all is over and ask me to jettison the jacket?'

  'Certainly not, sir.'

  'On that understanding then, I will carry on. Jeeves, I'm engaged.'