P G Wodehouse - Much Obliged Jeeves Read online




  P G Wodehouse - Much Obliged, Jeeves

  Much Obliged, Jeeves

  P. G. Wodehouse

  Much Obliged, Jeeves

  London. 1971

  CHAPTER One

  As I slid into my chair at the breakfast table and started to deal with the toothsome eggs and bacon which Jeeves had given of his plenty, I was conscious of a strange exhilaration, if I've got the word right. Pretty good the set-up looked to me. Here I was, back in the old familiar headquarters, and the thought that I had seen the last of Totleigh Towers, of Sir Watkyn Bassett, of his daughter Madeline and above all of the unspeakable Spode, or Lord Sidcup as he now calls himself, was like the medium dose for adults of one of those patent medicines which tone the system and impart a gentle glow.

  'These eggs, Jeeves,' I said. 'Very good. Very tasty.'

  'Yes, sir?'

  'Laid, no doubt, by contented hens. And the coffee, perfect. Nor must I omit to give a word of praise to the bacon. I wonder if you notice anything about me this morning.'

  'You seem in good spirits, sir.'

  'Yes Jeeves, I am happy today.'

  'I am very glad to hear it, sir.'

  'You might say I'm sitting on top of the world with a rainbow round my shoulder.'

  'A most satisfactory state of affairs, sir.'

  'What's the word I've heard you use from time to time-begins with eu?'

  'Euphoria, sir?'

  'That's the one. I've seldom had a sharper attack of euphoria. I feel full to the brim of Vitamin B. Mind you, I don't know how long it will last. Too often it is when one feels fizziest that the storm clouds begin doing their stuff.'

  'Very true, sir. Full many a glorious morning have I seen flatter the mountain tops with sovereign eye, kissing with golden face the meadows green, gilding pale streams with heavenly alchemy, Anon permit the basest clouds to ride with ugly rack on his celestial face and from the forlorn world his visage hide, stealing unseen to west with this disgrace.'

  'Exactly,' I said. I couldn't have put it better myself. 'One always has to budget for a change in the weather. Still, the thing to do is to keep on being happy while you can.'

  'Precisely, sir. Carpe diem, the Roman poet Horace advised. The English poet Herrick expressed the same sentiment when he suggested that we should gather rosebuds while we may. Your elbow is in the butter, sir.'

  'Oh, thank you, Jeeves.

  ' Well, all right so far. Off to a nice start. But now we come to something which gives me pause. In recording the latest instalment of the Bertram Wooster Story, a task at which I am about to have a pop, I don't see how I can avoid delving into the past a good deal, touching on events which took place in previous instalments, and explaining who's who and what happened when and where and why, and this will make it heavy going for those who have been with me from the start. 'Old hat' they will cry or, if French, 'Deja Vu.' On the other hand, I must consider the new customers. I can't just leave the poor perishers to try to puzzle things out for themselves. If I did, the exchanges in the present case would run somewhat as follows.

  Self: The relief I felt at having escaped from Totleigh Towers was stupendous.

  New C: What's Totleigh Towers?

  Self : For one thing it had looked odds on that I should have to marry Madeline.

  New C: Who's Madeline?

  Self: Gussie Fink-Nottle, you see, had eloped with the cook.

  New C: Who's Gussie Fink-Nottle?

  Self: But most fortunately Spode was in the offing and scooped her up, saving me from the scaffold.

  New C: Who's Spode?

  You see. Hopeless. Confusion would be rife, as one might put it. The only way out that I can think of is to ask the old gang to let their attention wander for a bit--there are heaps of things they can be doing; washing the car, solving the crossword puzzle, taking the dog for a run,--while I place the facts before the newcomers. Briefly, then, owing to circumstances I needn't go into, Madeline Bassett daughter of Sir Watkyn Bassett of Totleigh Towers, Glos. had long been under the impression that I was hopelessly in love with her and had given to understand that if ever she had occasion to return her betrothed, Gussie Fink-Nottle, to store, she would marry me. Which wouldn't have fitted in with my plans at all, she though physically in the pin-up class, being as mushy a character as ever broke biscuit, convinced that the stars are God's daisy chain and that every time a fairy blows its wee nose a baby is born. The last thing, as you can well imagine, one would want about the home.

  So when Gussie unexpectedly eloped with the cook, it looked as though Bertram was for it. If a girl thinks you're in love with her and says she will marry you, you can't very well voice a preference for being dead in a ditch. Not, I mean, if you want to regard yourself as a preux chevalier, as the expression is, which is always my aim. But just as I was about to put in my order for sackcloth and ashes, up, as I say, popped Spode, now going about under the alias of Lord Sidcup. He had loved her since she was so high but had never got around to mentioning it, and when he did so now, they clicked immediately. And the thought that she was safely out of circulation and no longer a menace was possibly the prime ingredient in my current euphoria.

  I think that makes everything clear to the meanest intelligence, does it not? Right ho, so we can go ahead. Where were we? Ah yes, I had just told Jeeves that I was sitting on top of the world with a rainbow round my shoulder, but expressing a doubt as to whether this state of things would last, and how wel founded that doubt proved to be; for scarcely a forkful of eggs and b later it was borne in upon me that life was not the grand sweet song I had supposed it to be, but, as you might say, stern and earnest and full of bumps.

  'Was I mistaken, Jeeves,' I said, making idle conversation as I sipped my coffee, 'or as the mists of sleep shredded away this morning did I hear your typewriter going?'

  'Yes, sir. I was engaged in composition.'

  'A dutiful letter to Charlie Silversmith?' I said, alluding to his uncle who held the post of butler at Deverill Hall, where we had once been pleasant visitors. 'Or possibly a lyric in the manner of the bloke who advocates gathering rosebuds ? '

  'Neither, sir. I was recording the recent happenings at Totleigh Towers for the club book.'

  And here, dash it, I must once more ask what I may call the old sweats to let their attention wander while I put the new arrivals abreast. Jeeves, you must know (I am addressing the new arrivals), belongs to a club for butlers and gentlemen's gentlemen round Curzon Street way, and one of the rules there is that every member must contribute to the club book the latest information concerning the fe low he's working for, the idea being to inform those seeking employment of the sort of thing they will be taking on. If a member is contemplating signing up with someone, he looks him up in the club book, and if he finds that he puts out crumbs for the birdies every morning and repeatedly saves golden-haired children from being run over by automobiles, he knows he is on a good thing and has no hesitation in accepting office. Whereas if the book informs him that the fellow habitually kicks starving dogs and generally begins the day by throwing the breakfast porridge at his personal attendant, he is warned in time to steer clear of him.

  Which is all very well and one follows the train of thought, but in my opinion such a book is pure dynamite and ought not to be permitted. There are, Jeeves has informed me, eleven pages in it about me; and what will the harvest be, I ask him, if it falls into the hands of my Aunt Agatha, with whom my standing is already low. She spoke her mind freely enough some years ago when--against my personal wishes--I was found with twenty-three cats in my bedroom and again when I was accused--unjustly, I need hardly say--of having marooned A. B. Filmer, the Cabine
t minister, on an island in her lake. To what heights of eloquence would she not soar, if informed of my vicissitudes at Totleigh Towers? The imagination boggles, Jeeves, I tell him.

  To which he replies that it won't fall into the hands of my Aunt Agatha, she not being likely to drop in at the Junior Ganymede, which is what his club is called, and there the matter rests. His reasoning is specious and he has more or less succeeded in soothing my tremors, but I still can't help feeling uneasy, and my manner, as I addressed him now, had quite a bit of agitation in it.

  'Good Lordl ' I ejaculated, if ejaculated is the word I want, 'Are you really writing up that Totleigh business?'

  'Yes, sir.'

  'All the stuff about my being supposed to have pinched old Bassett's amber statuette?

  'Yes, sir.'

  'And the night I spent in a prison cell? Is this necessary? Why not let the dead past bury its dead? Why not forget all about it?'

  'Impossible, sir.'

  'Why impossible? Don't tell me you can't forget things. You aren't an elephant.' I thought I had him there, but no.

  'It is my membership in the Junior Ganymede which restrains me from obliging you, sir. The rules with reference to the club book are very strict and the penalty for omitting to contribute to it severe. Actual expulsion has sometimes resulted.'

  'I see,' I said. I could appreciate that this put him in quite a spot, the feudal spirit making him wish to do the square thing by the young master, while a natural disinclination to get bunged out of a well-loved club urged him to let the young master boil his head. The situation seemed to me to call for what is known as a compromise.

  'Well, couldn't you water the thing down a bit? Omit one or two of the juiciest episodes?'

  'I fear not, sir. The full facts are required. The committee insists on this.'

  I suppose I ought not at this point to have expressed a hope that his blasted committee would trip over banana skins and break their ruddy necks, for I seemed to detect on his face a momentary look of pain. But he was broadminded and condoned it.

  'Your chagrin does not surprise me, sir. One can, however, understand their point of view. The Junior Ganymede club book is a historic document. It has been in existence more than eighty years.'

  'It must be the size of a house.'

  'No, sir, the records are in several volumes. The present one dates back some twelve years. And one must remember that it is not every employer who demands a great deal of space.'

  'Demands '

  'I should have said "requires". As a rule, a few lines suffice. Your eighteen pages are quite exceptional.'

  'Eighteen? I thought it was eleven.'

  'You are omitting to take into your calculations the report of your misadventures at Totleigh Towers, which I have nearly completed. I anticipate that this will run to approximately seven. If you will permit me, sir, I will pat your back.'

  He made this kindly offer because I had choked on a swallow of coffee. A few pats and I was myself again and more than a little incensed, as always happens when we are discussing his literary work. Eighteen pages, I mean to say, and every page full of stuff calculated, if thrown open to the public, to give my prestige the blackest of eyes. Conscious of a strong desire to kick the responsible parties in the seat of the pants, I spoke with a generous warmth.

  'Well, I call it monstrous. There's no other word for it. Do you know what that blasted committee of yours are inviting? Blackmail, that's what they're inviting. Let some man of ill will get his hooks on that book, and what'll be the upshot? Ruin, Jeeves that's what'll be the upshot.'

  I don't know if he drew himself to his full height, because I was lighting a cigarette at the moment and wasn't looking, but I think he must have done, for his voice, when he spoke, was the chilly voice of one who has drawn himself to his full height.

  'There are no men of ill will in the Junior Ganymede, sir.'

  I contested this statement hotly. 'That's what you think. How about Brinkley?' I said, my allusion being to a fellow the agency had sent me some years previously when Jeeves and I had parted company temporarily because he didn't like me playing the banjolele. 'He's a member, isn't he?'

  'A county member, sir. He rarely comes to the club. In passing, sir, his name is not Brinkley, it is Bingley.'

  I waved an impatient cigarette holder. I was in no mood to split straws. Or is it hairs?

  'His name is not of the essence, Jeeves. What is of the e is that he went off on his afternoon out, came back in an advanced state of intoxication, set the house on fire and tried to dismember me with a carving knife.'

  'A most unpleasant experience, sir.'

  'Having heard noises down below, I emerged from my room and found him wrestling with the grandfather clock, with which he appeared to have had a difference. He then knocked over a lamp and leaped up the stairs at me, complete with cutlass. By a miracle I avoided becoming the late Bertram Wooster, but only by a miracle. And you say there are no men of ill will in the Junior Ganymede club. Tchah ! ' I said. It is an expression I don't often use, but the situation seemed to call for it.

  Things had become difficult. Angry passions were rising and dudgeon bubbling up a bit. It was fortunate that at this juncture the telephone should have tootled, causing a diversion.

  'Mrs. Travers, sir,' said Jeeves, having gone to the instrument.

  CHAPTER Two

  I had already divined who was at the other end of the wire, my good and deserving Aunt Dahlia having a habit of talking on the telephone with the breezy vehemence of a hog-caller in the western states of America calling his hogs to come and get it. She got this way through hunting a lot in her youth with the Quorn and the Pytchley. What with people riding over hounds and hounds taking time off to chase rabbits, a girl who hunts soon learns to make herself audible. I believe that she, when in good voice, could be heard in several adjoining counties.

  I stepped to the telephone, well pleased. There are few males or females whose society I enjoy more than that of this genial sister of my late father, and it was quite a time since we had foregathered. She lives near the town of Market Snodsbury in Worcestershire and sticks pretty closely to the rural seat, while I, as Jeeves had just recorded in the club book, had had my time rather full elsewhere of late. I was smiling sunnily as I took up the receiver. Not much good, of course, as she couldn't see me, but it's the spirit that counts.

  'Hullo, aged relative.'

  'Hullo to you, you young blot. Are you sober?'

  I felt a natural resentment at being considered capable of falling under the influence of the sauce at ten in the morning, but I reminded myself that aunts will be aunts. Show me an aunt, I've often said, and I will show you someone who doesn't give a hoot how much her obiter dicta may wound a nephew's sensibilities. With a touch of hauteur I reassured her on the point she had raised and asked her in what way I could serve her.

  'How about lunch?'

  'I'm not in London. I'm at home. And you can serve me, as you call it, by coming here. Today, if possible.'

  'Your words are music to my ears, old ancestor. Nothing could tickle me pinker,' I said, for I am always glad to accept her hospitality and to renew my acquaintance with the unbeatable eatables dished up by her superb French chef Anatole, God's gift to the gastric juices. I have often regretted that I have but one stomach to put at his disposal. 'Staying how long?'

  'As long as you like, my beamish boy. I'll let you know when the time comes to throw you out. The great thing is to get you here.'

  I was touched, as who would not have been, by the eagerness she showed for my company. Too many of my circle are apt when inviting me to their homes to stress the fact that they are only expecting me for the weekend and to dwell with too much enthusiasm on the excellence of the earlier trains back to the metropolis on Monday morning. The sunny smile widened an inch or two.

  'Awfully good of you to have me, old blood relation.'

  'It is, rather.'

  'I look forward to seeing you.'
>
  'Who wouldn't?'

  'Each minute will seem like an hour till we meet. How's Anatole?'

  'Greedy young pig, always thinking of Anatole.'

  'Difficult to help it. The taste lingers. How is his art these days?'

  'At its peak.'

  'That's good.'

  'Ginger says his output has been a revelation to him.'

  I asked her to repeat this. It had sounded to me just as if she had said 'Ginger says his output has been a revelation to him'. and I knew this couldn't be the case. It turned out, however, that it was.

  'Ginger?' I said, not abreast.

  'Harold Winship. He told me to call him Ginger. He's staying here. He says he's a friend of yours, which he would scarcely admit unless he knew it could be proved against him. You do know him, don't you? He speaks of having been at Oxford with you.'

  I uttered a joyful cry, and she said if I did it again, she would sue me, it having nearly cracked her eardrum. A notable instance of the pot calling the kettle black, as the old saying has it, she having been cracking mine since the start of the proceedings.

  'Know him?' I said. 'You bet I know him. We were like... Jeeves !'

  'Sir?

  'Who were those two fellows?'

  'Sir?'

  'Greek, if I remember correctly. Always mentioned when the subject of bosom pals comes up.'

  'Would you be referring to Damon and Pythias, sir?'

  'That's right. We were like Damon and Pythias, old ancestor. But what's he doing chez you? I wasn't aware that you and he had ever met.'

  'We hadn't. But his mother was an old school friend of mine.'

  'I see.'

  'And when I heard he was standing for Parliament in the by-election at Market Snodsbury, I wrote to him and told him to make my house his base. Much more comfortable than dossing at a pub.'

  'Oh, you've got a by-election at Market Snodsbury, have you?'

  'Under full steam.

  'And Ginger's one of the candidates?'

  'The Conservative one. You seem surprised.'

  'I am. You might say stunned. I wouldn't have thought it was his dish at all. How's he doing?'