" It sounded as if little Seabury was being murdered. No such luck, I take it ? " " The young gentleman was the victim of a personal assault, sir. At the hands of Sir Roderick Glossop. I was not an actual eyewitnessof the episode. I derive my informationfrom Mary, the parlourmaid, who was present in person." ••Present ? " " Peeping through the door, sir. Sir Roderick's appearance when she encountered him by chance on the stairs seems to have affected the girl powerfully, and she tells me that she had followed him about in a stealthy manner ever since, waiting to see what he would do next. I gather that his aspect fascinated her. She is inclined to be somewhat frivolous in her mental attitude, like so many of these young girls, sir." " And what occurred ?
" .jj " The affair may be said to have had its inception, sir, when Sir Roderick, passing through the hall, stepped upon the young gentleman's butter slide." " Ah I So he put that project through, did he?" " Yes, sir." " And Sir Roderick came a stinker ? " "
He appears to have fallen with some heaviness, sir. The girl Mary spoke of it with a good deal of animation. She compared his descent to the delivery of a ton of coals. I
confess the imagery somewhat surprised me, for she is not a highly imaginative girl." I smiled appreciatively. The evening, I felt, might have begun rockily, but it was certainly ending well. " Incensed by this. Sir Roderick appears to have hastened to the drawing-room, where he immediately subjected Master Seabury to a severe castigation. Her ladyship vainly endeavouredto induce him to desist, but he was firm in his refusal. The upshot of the matter was a definite rift between her ladyship and Sir Roderick,the former stating that she never wished to see him again, the latter asseverating that, if he could once get safely out of this pestilential house, he would never darken its doors again."
" A real mixup." " Yes, sir." " And the engagement's off ? " " Yes, sir.
The affection which her ladyship felt for Sir Roderick was instantaneously swept away on the tidal wave of injured mother love." "
Rather well put, Jeeves." " Thank you, sir." " Then Sir Roderick has pushed off for ever ? " " Apparently, sir." "A lot of trouble Chuffnell Hall is seeing these days. Almost as if there was a curse on the place."
" If one were superstitious, one might certainlysuppose so, sir." "
Well, if there wasn't a curse on it before,
you can bet there are about fifty-seven now. I heard old Glossop applying them as he passed." " He was much moved, I take it, sir ? " "
Very much moved, Jeeves." "So I should imagine, sir. Or he would scarcely have left the house in that condition." " How do you mean ? " "
Well, sir, if you consider. It will scarcely be feasible for him to return to his hotel in the existing circumstances. His appearance would excite remark. Nor, after what has occurred, can he very well return to the Hall." I saw what he was driving at. " Good Lord, Jeeves! You open up a new line of thought. Let me just review this. He can't go to his hotel-no, I see that, and he can't crawl back to the Dowager Lady C. and ask for shelter-no, I see that too. It's a dead stymie. I can't imagine what on earth he'll do." i " It is something of a problem, sir." I was silent for a moment.
Pensive. And, oddly enough, for you would have thought my mood would have been one of sober joy, the heart was really rather bleeding a bit.
" Do you know, Jeeves, scurvily as that man has treated me in the past, I can't help feeling sorry for him. I do, absolutely. He's in such an awful jam. It was bad enough for me being a black-faced wanderer, but I hadn't the position to keep up that he has. I mean to say, the world, observing me in this condition, might
quite easily just have shrugged its shoulders and murmured ' Young Blood!' or words to that effect, what ? " " Yes, sir." " But not with a bloke of his standing." " Very true, sir." " Well, well, well! Dear, dear, dear! I suppose, if you come right down to it, this is the vengeance of Heaven." " Quite possibly, sir." It isn't often that I point the moral, but I couldn't help doing it now. " It just shows how we ought always to be kind, even to the humblest, Jeeves. For years this Glossop has trampled on my face with spiked shoes, and see where it has landed him. What would have happened if we had been on chummy terms at this juncture ? He would have been on velvet. Observing him shooting past just now, I should have stopped him. I should have called out to him ' Hi, Sir Roderick, half a second. Don't go roaming about the place in make-up. Stick around here for awhile and pretty soon Jeeves will be arriving with the necessary butter, and all will be well.' Shouldn't I have said that, Jeeves ? " " Something of that general trend, no doubt, sir." " And he would have been saved from this fearful situation, this sore strait, in which he now finds himself. I dare say that man won't be able to get butter till well on in the morning.
