The Jeeves Omnibus (193 page)

‘Sorry to interrupt you, Jeeves,’ said Monica.

‘Not at all, m’lady.’

‘Finish your reading.’

‘I had already done so, m’lady. A communication from Mr Wooster.’

‘Oh?’ said Rory. ‘Bertie Wooster, eh? How is the old bounder? Robust?’

‘Mr Wooster says nothing to indicate the contrary, sir.’

‘Good. Rosy cheeks, eh? Eating his spinach, no doubt? Capital. Couldn’t be better. Still, be that as it may,’ said Rory, ‘what do you think of Taj Mahal for this afternoon’s beano at Epsom Downs? I thought of slapping my two quid on its nose, with your approval.’

‘And Moke the Second,’ said Monica. ‘That’s my fancy.’

Jeeves considered.

‘I see no objection to a small wager on the animal you have named sir, nor on yours, m’lady. One must bear in mind, however, that the Derby is always an extremely open race.’

‘Don’t I know it!’

‘It would be advisable, therefore, if the funds are sufficient, to endeavour to save your stake by means of a bet each way on some other horse.’

‘Rory thought of Escalator. I’m hesitating.’

Jeeves coughed.

‘Has your ladyship considered the Irish horse, Ballymore?’

‘Oh, Jeeves, for heaven’s sake. None of the nibs even mention it. No, not Ballymore, Jeeves. I’ll have to think of something.’

‘Very good, m’lady. Would there be anything further?’

‘Yes,’ said Rory. ‘Now that we’re all here together, cheek by jowl as it were, a word from our sponsor on a personal matter, Jeeves. What was all that that Mrs Dogsbody was saying at lunch about you and her being out on the tiles last night?’

‘Sir?’

‘Weren’t you in the room when she was talking about it?’

‘No, m’lady.’

‘She said you bowled off together in the small hours to the ruined chapel.’

‘Ah, yes, m’lady. I apprehend Sir Roderick’s meaning now. Mrs Spottsworth did desire me to escort her to the ruined chapel last night. She was hoping to see the wraith of Lady Agatha, she informed me.’

‘Any luck?’

‘No, m’lady.’

‘She says Bill saw the old girl.’

‘Yes, m’lady.’

Rory uttered the gratified exclamation of one who has solved a mystery.

‘So that’s why Bill’s looking like a piece of cheese today. It must have scared him stiff.’

‘I believe Lord Rowcester was somewhat moved by the experience, Sir Roderick. But I fancy that if, as you say, there is a resemblance between his lordship and a portion of cheese, it is occasioned more by the circumstance of his lordship’s matrimonial plans having been cancelled than by any manifestation from the spirit world.’

Monica squeaked excitedly.

‘You don’t mean Bill’s engagement is off?’

‘That is what I was endeavouring to convey, m’lady. Miss Wyvern handed me the ring in person, to return to his lordship. “Am I to infer, miss,” I ventured to inquire, “that there is a symbolical significance attached to this gesture?” and Miss Wyvern replied in the affirmative.’

‘Well, I’ll be blowed. Poor old Bill!’

‘Yes, m’lady.’

‘The heart bleeds.’

‘Yes, Sir Roderick.’

It was at this moment that Bill came charging in. Seeing his sister and her husband, he stopped.

‘Oh, hullo, Rory,’ he said. ‘Hullo, Moke. I’d forgotten you were here.’

Rory advanced with outstretched hand. The dullest eye could have seen that he was registering compassion. He clasped Bill’s right hand in his own, and with his left hand kneaded Bill’s shoulder. A man, he knew, wants sympathy at a time like this. It is in such a crisis in his affairs that he thanks heaven that he has an
understanding
brother-in-law, a brother-in-law who knows how to give a pep talk.

‘We are not only here, old man,’ he said, ‘but we have just heard from Jeeves a bit of news that has frozen our blood. He says the girl Jill has returned you to store. Correct? I see it is. Too bad, too bad. But don’t let it get you down, boy. You must … how would you put it, Jeeves?’

‘Stiffen the sinews, summon up the blood, Sir Roderick.’

‘Precisely. You want to take the big, broad, spacious view, Bill. You are a fiancée short, let’s face it, and your immediate reaction is, no doubt, a disposition to rend the garments and scatter ashes on the head. But you’ve got to look at these things from every angle, Bill, old man. Remember what Shakespeare said: “A woman is only a woman, but a good cigar is a smoke.”’

Jeeves winced.

‘Kipling, Sir Roderick.’

‘And here’s another profound truth. I don’t know who said this one. All cats are grey in the dark.’

Monica spoke. Her lips, as she listened, had been compressed. There was a strange light in her eyes.

‘Splendid. Go on.’

Rory stopped kneading Bill’s shoulder and patted it.

‘At the moment,’ he resumed, ‘you are reeling from the shock, and very naturally, too. You feel you’ve lost something valuable, and of course I suppose one might say you have, for Jill’s a nice enough kid, no disputing that. But don’t be too depressed about it. Look for the silver lining, whenever clouds appear in the blue, as I have frequently sung in my bath and you, I imagine, in yours. Don’t forget you’re back in circulation again. Personally, I think it’s an extremely nice slice of luck for you that this has happened. A bachelor’s life is the only happy one, old man. When it comes to love, there’s a lot to be said for the à la carte as opposed to the table d’hôte.’

‘Jeeves,’ said Monica.

‘M’lady?’

‘What was the name of the woman who drove a spike into her husband’s head? It’s in the Bible somewhere.’

‘I fancy your ladyship is thinking of the story of Jael. But she and the gentleman into whose head she drove the spike were not married, merely good friends.’

‘Still, her ideas were basically sound.’

‘It was generally considered so in her circle of acquaintance, m’lady.’

‘Have you a medium-sized spike, Jeeves? No? I must look in at the ironmonger’s,’ said Monica. ‘Goodbye, Table d’hôte.’

She walked out, and Rory watched her go, concerned. His was not a very quick mind, but he seemed to sense something wrong.

‘I say! She’s miffed. Eh, Jeeves?’

‘I received that impression, Sir Roderick.’

‘Dash it all, I was only saying that stuff about marriage to cheer you up, Bill. Jeeves, where can I get some flowers? And don’t say “At the flower shop”, because I simply can’t sweat all the way to the town. Would there be flowers in the garden?’

‘In some profusion, Sir Roderick.’

‘I’ll go and pluck her a bouquet. That’s a thing you’ll find it useful to remember, Bill, if ever you get married, not that you’re likely to, of course, the way things are shaping. Always remember that when the gentler sex get miffed, flowers will bring them round every time.’

The door closed. Jeeves turned to Bill.

‘Your lordship wished to see me about something?’ he said courteously.

Bill passed a hand over his throbbing brow.

‘Jeeves,’ he said, ‘I hardly know how to begin. Have you an aspirin about you?’

‘Certainly, m’lord. I have just been taking one myself.’

He produced a small tin box, and held it out.

‘Thank you, Jeeves. Don’t slam the lid.’

‘No, m’lord.’

‘And now,’ said Bill, ‘to tell you all.’

Jeeves listened with gratifyingly close attention while he poured out his tale. There was no need for Bill at its conclusion to ask him if he had got the gist. It was plain from the gravity of his ‘Most disturbing, m’lord’ that he had got it nicely. Jeeves always got gists.

‘If ever a man was in the soup,’ said Bill, summing up, ‘I am. I have been played up and made a sucker of. What are those things people get used as, Jeeves?’

‘Cat’s-paws, m’lord?’

‘That’s right. Cat’s-paws. This blighted Biggar has used me as a cat’s-paw. He told me the tale. Like an ass, I believed him. I pinched the pendant, swallowing that whole story of his about it practically belonging to him and he only wanted to borrow it for a few hours, and off he went to London with it, and I don’t suppose we shall ever see him again. Do you?’

‘It would appear improbable, m’lord.’

‘One of those remote contingencies, what?’

‘Extremely remote, I fear, m’lord.’

‘You wouldn’t care to kick me, Jeeves?’

‘No, m’lord.’

‘I’ve been trying to kick myself, but it’s so dashed difficult if you aren’t a contortionist. All that stuff about stingahs and long bars and the chap Sycamore! We ought to have seen through it in an instant.’

‘We ought, indeed, m’lord.’

‘I suppose that when a man has a face as red as that, one tends to feel that he must be telling the truth.’

‘Very possibly, m’lord.’

‘And his eyes were so bright and blue. Well, there it is,’ said Bill. ‘Whether it was the red face or the blue eyes that did it, one cannot say, but the fact remains that as a result of the general colour scheme I allowed myself to be used as a cat’s-paw and pinched an expensive pendant which the hellhound Biggar has gone off to London with, thus rendering myself liable to an extended sojourn in the cooler … unless –’

‘M’lord?’

‘I was going to say “Unless you have something to suggest.” Silly of me,’ said Bill, with a hollow laugh. ‘How could you possibly have anything to suggest?’

‘I have, m’lord.’

Bill stared.

‘You wouldn’t try to be funny at a time like this, Jeeves?’

‘Certainly not, m’lord.’

‘You really have a life-belt to throw me before the gumbo closes over my head?’

‘Yes, m’lord. In the first place, I would point out to your lordship that there is little or no likelihood of your lordship becoming suspect of the theft of Mrs Spottsworth’s ornament. It has disappeared. Captain Biggar has disappeared. The authorities will put two and two together, m’lord, and automatically credit him with the crime.’

‘Something in that.’

‘It would seem impossible, m’lord, for them to fall into any other train of thought.’

Bill brightened a little, but only a little.

‘Well, that’s all to the good, I agree, but it doesn’t let me out. You’ve overlooked something, Jeeves.’

‘M’lord?’

‘The honour of the Rowcesters. That is the snag we come up against. I can’t go through life feeling that under my own roof – leaky,
but
still a roof – I have swiped a valuable pendant from a guest filled to the eyebrows with my salt. How am I to reimburse La Spottsworth? That is the problem to which we have to bend our brains.’

‘I was about to touch on that point, m’lord. Your lordship will recall that in speaking of suspicion falling upon Captain Biggar I said “In the first place”. In the second place, I was about to add, restitution can readily be made to Mrs Spottsworth, possibly in the form of notes to the correct amount dispatched anonymously to her address, if the lady can be persuaded to purchase Rowcester Abbey.’

‘Great Scott, Jeeves!’

‘M’lord?’

‘The reason I used the expression “Great Scott!”’ said Bill, his emotion still causing him to quiver from head to foot, ‘was that in the rush and swirl of recent events I had absolutely forgotten all about selling the house. Of course! That would fix up everything, wouldn’t it?’

‘Unquestionably, m’lord. Even a sale at a sacrifice price would enable your lordship to do –’

‘The square thing?’

‘Precisely, m’lord. I may add that while on our way to the ruined chapel last night, Mrs Spottsworth spoke in high terms of the charms of Rowcester Abbey and was equally cordial in her remarks as we were returning. All in all, m’lord, I would say that the prospects were distinctly favourable, and if I might offer the suggestion, I think that your lordship should now withdraw to the library and obtain material for what is termed a sales talk by skimming through the advertisements in
Country Life
, in which, as your lordship is possibly aware, virtually every large house which has been refused as a gift by the National Trust is offered for sale. The language is extremely persuasive.’

‘Yes, I know the sort of thing. “This lordly demesne, with its avenues of historic oaks, its tumbling streams alive with trout and tench, its breath-taking vistas lined with flowering shrubs …” Yes, I’ll bone up.’

‘It might possibly assist your lordship if I were to bring a small bottle of champagne to the library.’

‘You think of everything, Jeeves.’

‘Your lordship is too kind.’

‘Half a bot should do the trick.’

‘I think so, m’lord, if adequately iced.’

It was some minutes later, as Jeeves was passing through the living room with the brain-restorer on a small tray, that Jill came in through the french window.

IT IS A
characteristic of women as a sex, and one that does credit to their gentle hearts, that – unless they are gangsters’ molls or something of that kind – they shrink from the thought of violence. Even when love is dead, they dislike the idea of the man to whom they were once betrothed receiving a series of juicy ones from a horsewhip in the competent hands of an elderly, but still muscular, chief constable of a county. When they hear such a chief constable sketching out plans for an operation of this nature, their instinct is to hurry to the prospective victim’s residence and warn him of his peril by outlining the shape of things to come.

It was to apprise Bill of her father’s hopes and dreams that Jill had come to Rowcester Abbey and, not being on speaking terms with her former fiancé, she had been wondering a little how the information she was bringing could be conveyed to him. The sight of Jeeves cleared up this point. A few words of explanation to Jeeves, coupled with the suggestion that he should advise Bill to lie low till the old gentleman had blown over, would accomplish what she had in mind, and she could then go home again, her duty done and the whole unpleasant affair disposed of.

‘Oh, Jeeves,’ she said.

Jeeves had turned, and was regarding her with respectful benevolence.

‘Good afternoon, miss. You will find his lordship in the library.’

Jill stiffened haughtily. There was not much of her, but what there was she drew to its full height.