" Or olive branch ? Yes, sir. So, at least, I divined from her demeanour. I was left with the impression that all the old love and esteem were in operation once more." " And I'm very glad to hear it," I said cordially. " For I must tell you, Jeeves, that since we last got together I have completely changed my mind about the above Glossop. I see now that there is much good in him. In the silent watches of the night we formed what you wouldn't be far out in describing as
a beautiful friendship. We discovered each other's hidden merits, and he left showering invitations to lunch." " Indeed, sir." ? "Absolutely.
From now on, there will always be a knife and fork for Bertram at the Glossop lair, and the same for Roddy chez Bertram." " Very gratifying, sir." " Most. So if you're chatting with Lady Chuffnell in the near future, you can tell her that the match now has my full approval and sanction. But all this, Jeeves," I proceeded, striking the practical note, "is beside the point. The main issue is that I am sorely in need of nourishment, and I want that tray. So hand it across and look slippy." " You are proposing to eat his lordship's breakfast, sir ? " "
Jeeves," I said emotionally, and was about to go on to add that, if he had any doubts as to what I was proposing to do to that breakfast, he could remove them by standing to one side and watching me get action, when once more I heard footsteps in the passage outside. Instead of speaking along these lines, accordingly, I blenched, as near as a fellow can blench when his face is all covered with boot polish, and broke off with a brief heart cry. Once more I perceived that it had become imperative that I vanish from the scene. These footsteps, I must mention, were of the solid, sturdy, shoe-number-eleven type. It was
natural, therefore, that I should assume that it was Chuff y who now stood without. And to encounter Chuffy, I need scarcely say, would have been foreign to my policy. I have already indicated with, I think, sufficient clearness, that he was not in sympathy with my aims and objects. That interview we had had on the previous night had shown me that he was to be reckoned as essentially one of the opposition -a hostile element and a menace. Let him discover me here, and the first thing I knew he would be locking me up somewhere in a spirit of chivalrous zeal and sending messengers to old Stoker to drop round and collect. Long, therefore, before the handle had turned I was down in the depths like a diving duck. The door opened. A female voice spoke. No doubt that of the future Mrs. Constable Dobson. " Mr. Stoker," it announced. Large, flat feet clumped into the room
I WEDGED myself a little tighter in behind the old zareba. Not so good, not so good, a voice seemed to be whispering in my ear. Of all the unpleasant contingencies which could have arisen, this seemed to me about the scaliest. Whatever might have been said against Chuff nell Hall-and recent events had tended considerably to lessen its charm in my eyes -I had supposed that you could put forward at least one thing in its favour, viz. that there was no possible chance of encountering J.
Washbum Stoker on the premises. And, in spite of having my time fairly fully occupied with feeling like a jelly, I was still able to experience quite a spot of honest indignation at what I considered a dashed unjustifiable intrusion on his part. I mean to say, if a man has thrown his weight about in a stately home of England, ticking off the residents and asserting positively that he jolly well isn't going to darken its doors again, he has no right to come strolling in barely two days later as if the place were an hotel with "Welcome" on the mat. I felt pretty strongly about the whole thing. I was also wondering how Jeeves would
handle this situation. By this time a shrewd bloke like this Stoker was bound to have guessed that his were the brains behind my escape, and it seemed not unlikely that he would make some tentative move towards scattering these brains on the hearth rug. His voice, when he spoke, undoubtedly indicated that some such idea was floating in his mind. It was harsh and roopy, and though all that he actually said by way of a start was "Ah! " a determined man can get a lot of meaning into an " Ah I " " Good morning, sir," said Jeeves. This business of lying curled up behind desks cuts both ways. It has its advantages and its drawbacks.
Purely from the standpoint of the slinking fugitive, of course, fine.
