'Oh, a little thing like that. ..'
'Well, try this one. Lord Emsworth has a fixed idea that your uncle is plotting to nobble Empress of Blandings.' 'What! Why?'
'He's got it all worked out. Your uncle owns a pig called Pride of Matchingham, and with the Empress out of the way it would probably cop the silver medal at the Show. So when the Empress was stolen the other day...'
' Stolen! Who stole her ?'
'Ronnie.'
Monty's head, never strong, was beginning to swim.
' What Ronnie ? Do you mean Ronnie Fish ?'
'That's right. It's a complicated story. Ronnie's engaged to a girl, and he can't marry her unless old Emsworth coughs up his money.'
' He's Ronnie's trustee ?'
'Yes.'
'Trustees are tough eggs,' said Monty thoughtfully. 'I had one till I was twenty-five, and it used to take me weeks of patient spadework to extract so much as a tenner from the man.'
'So, in order to ingratiate himself with old Emsworth, Ronnie pinched his pig.'
Once more Monty became conscious of that swimming sensation. He could not follow this.
'But why- ?'
'Quite simple. His idea was to kidnap the pig, hide it somewhere for a day or two, and then pretend to find it and so win the old boy's gratitude. After which, to have put the bite on him would have been an easy task. It was a very sound scheme indeed. Of course, it all went wrong. Any scheme of Ronnie's would.'
' What went wrong ?'
'Well, various unforeseen events occurred, and in the end the animal was discovered in a caravan belonging to Baxter. I told you it was a little complicated,' said Hugo kindly, noting the strained expression on his friend's face.
Monty agreed, but on one point he found himself reasonably clear.
'Then old Emsworth must have known that my uncle didn't steal the pig? I mean, if it was found in Baxter's. ..'
'Not at all. He thinks Baxter was working for your uncle. I tell you once more, as I was saying at the beginning, that, taking it by and large, I don't think I'd rely too much on Sir Gregory's pull, if I were you.'
Monty chewed his lip thoughtfully.
'There's no harm in trying.'
'Oh, have a shot, by all means. I'm only saying it isn't one of those stone-cold certainties that old Emsworth will engage you as his secretary purely out of love for Sir G. Parsloe.' Hugo looked at the clock, and rose.' I've got to be going,' he said,' if I don't want to miss that train.'
Monty accompanied him to the front steps, and Hugo hailed a cab.
' It might work,' said Monty pensively. ' Oh, rather. Certainly.'
'They might have had a what-is-it - a reconciliation by this time.'
'I didn't see any signs of it when I left. And now I must really rush,' said Hugo, getting into the cab. 'Oh, by the way,' he added, leaning out of the window, 'there's just one thing. If you do go to Blandings, you'll find the second prettiest girl in England there. Keep well away, is my advice.'
'Eh?'
' Ronnie's fiancee. They're both at the Castle, and if you exhibit too much enthusiasm about her he is extremely apt to strangle you with his bare hands. Personally,' said Hugo, ‘I regard jealousy as a mug's game, my view being that where there is thingummy there should be what-d'you-call-it. Perfect love, ditto trust. But Ronnie belongs more to the Othello or green-eyed monster school of thought. He was so jealous of a fellow called Pilbeam that he went so far on one occasion as to wreck a restaurant when he found him apparently dining with Sue in it. Oh, yes, a bird of strong feelings and keen sensibilities, old Ronnie.'
'How do you mean apparently dining ?'
'She was really dining with me. Blameless Hugo. But Ronnie didn't know that. He discovered Sue in conversation with this Pilbeam - you'll find him at the Castle too,...'
'Sue?' said Monty.
' Her name's Sue. Sue Brown.'
'What!'
'Sue Brown.'
'Not Sue Brown? You don't mean a girl called Sue Brown who was in the chorus at the Regal ?'
'That's the one. You seem to know her.'
'Know her? I should say I do know her. Certainly I know her. I haven't seen her for about a couple of years, but at one time ... Dear old Sue! Good old Sue! One of the sweetest things on earth, old Sue. You don't often come across such a ripper. Why...'
Hugo shook his head deprecatingly.
'Precisely the spirit against which I am warning you. Just the very tone you would do well to avoid. I think we may say that it is an excellent thing that your chances of getting to Blandings Castle are so remote. I should hate to read in my morning paper that your swollen body had been found floating in the lake.'
For some moments after the cab had rolled away, Monty remained in deep thought on the steps. The news that Sue Brown, of all people, was at Blandings Castle had certainly made the prospect of securing employment there additionally attractive. It would be great seeing old Sue again.
As for all that pig business, he refused to allow himself to be discouraged. Probably much exaggerated. An excellent fellow, Hugo Carmody, one of the best, but always inclined to make a good story out of everything.
Full of optimism, Monty Bodkin went along the passage to the telephone-room.
'I want a trunk call,' he said. 'Matchingham 8-3.'
Chapter Three
Some twenty-four hours after Monty Bodkin had put in his longdistance call to Matchingham 8-3, an observant bird, winging its way over Blandings Castle and taking a bird's-eye view of its parks, gardens, and messuages, would have noticed a couple walking up and down the terrace which fronts the main entrance of that stately home of England. And narrowing its gaze and shading its eyes with a claw, for the morning sun was strong, it would have seen that one of the pair was a small, sturdy young man of pink complexion, the other an extremely pretty girl in a green linen dress with a Quaker collar. Ronald Overbury Fish was saying good-bye to his Sue preparatory to driving in to Market Blandings and taking the twelve-forty train east. He was going to Norfolk to be best man at the wedding of his cousin George.
He did not anticipate that the parting would be a long one, for he expected to return on the morrow. Nevertheless, he felt constrained to give Sue a few words of advice as to her deportment during his absence.
First and foremost, he urged, she must use every feminine wile to fascinate his Uncle Clarence.
'Right,' said Sue. She was a tiny girl, with an enchanting smile and big blue eyes. These last were now sparkling with ready intelligence. She followed his reasoning perfectly. Lord Emsworth, though he had promised Ronnie his money, had not yet given it to him and might conceivably change his mind. Obviously, therefore, he must be fascinated. The task, moreoever, would not be a distasteful one. In the brief time during which she had had the pleasure of his acquaintance, she had grown very fond of that mild and dreamy peer.
'Right,' she said.
'Keep surging round him like glue.' 'Right,' said Sue.
'In fact, I think you had better go and talk pig to him the moment I've left.' 'Right,' said Sue.
'And about Aunt Constance ...' said Ronnie.
He paused, frowning. He always frowned when he thought of his aunt, Lady Constance Keeble.
When Ronald Fish, the Last of the Fishes, only son of Lady Julia Fish, and nephew to Clarence, ninth Earl of Emsworth, had announced that a marriage had been arranged and would shortly take place between himself and a unit of the Regal Theatre chorus, he had had what might be called a mixed Press. Some of the notices were good, others not.
Beach, the Castle butler, who had fostered for eighteen years a semi-paternal attitude towards Ronnie and had fallen in love with Sue at first sight, liked the idea. So did the Hon. Galahad Threepwood, who when a dashing young man about town in the nineties had wanted to marry Sue's mother. As for Lord Emsworth himself, he had said 'Oh, ah?' in an absent voice on hearing the news and had gone on thinking about pigs.
It was, as so often happens on these occasions,
from the female side of the family that the jarring note had proceeded. Women are seldom without their class prejudices. Their views on the importance of Rank diverge from those of the poet Burns. We have seen how Lady Julia felt about the match. The disapproval of her sister Constance was equally pronounced. She grieved over this blot which was about to be splashed upon the escutcheon of a proud family, and let the world see that she grieved. She sighed a good deal, and when she was not sighing kept her lips tightly pressed together.
So now when Ronnie mentioned her name, he frowned. 'About Aunt Constance ...'
He was going on to add that, should his Aunt Constance have the nerve during his absence to put on dog and do any of that haughty County stuff to his betrothed, the latter would be well advised to kick her in the face; when there emerged from the house a young man with marcelled hair, a shifty expression, and a small and repellent moustache. He stood for an instant on the threshold, hesitated, caught Ronnie's eye, smiled weakly, and disappeared again. Ronnie stood gazing tensely at the spot where he had been.
'Little blighter!' he growled, grinding his teeth gently. The sight of P. Frobisher Pilbeam always tended to wake the fiend that slept in Ronald Fish. 'Looking for you, I suppose!'
Sue started nervously.
'Oh, I shouldn't think so. We've hardly spoken for days.' 'He doesn't ever bother you now ?' 'Oh, no.'
'What's he doing here, anyway? I thought he'd left.' ‘I suppose Lord Emsworth asked him to stay on. What does he matter?'
'He used to send you flowers!' ‘I know, but ...'
'He trailed you to that restaurant that night.'
'I know. But surely you aren't worried about him any longer?'
'Me?' said Ronnie. 'No! Of course not.'
He spoke a little gruffly, for he was embarrassed. It is always embarrassing for a young man of sensibility to realize that he is making a priceless ass of himself. He knew perfectly well that there was nothing between Sue and this Pilbeam perisher and never had been anything. And yet the sight of him about the place could make him flush and scowl and get all throaty.
Of course, the whole trouble with him was that where Sue was concerned he suffered from an inferiority complex. He found it so difficult to believe that a girl like her could really care for a bird so short and pink as himself. He was always afraid that one of these days it would suddenly dawn upon her what a mistake she had made in supposing herself to be in love with him and would race off and fall in love with somebody else. Not Pilbeam, of course, but suppose somebody tall and lissom came along...
Sue was pressing her point. She wanted this thing settled and out of the way. The only cloud on her happiness was that tendency of her Ronald's towards jealousy, to which Hugo Carmody had alluded so feelingly in his conversation with Monty Bodkin. Jealousy when two people had come together and knew that they loved one another always seemed to her silly and incomprehensible. She had the frank, uncomplicated mind of a child.
'You promise you won't worry about him again?'
'Absolutely not.'
'Nor about anybody else?'
'Positively not. Couldn't possibly happen again.' He paused. 'The only thing is,' he said broodingly, 'I am so dashed short!' 'You're just the right height.' 'And pink.'
'My favourite colour. You're a precious little pink cherub, and I love you.' 'You really do?' 'Of course I do.'
'But suppose you changed your mind?' 'You are a chump, Ronnie.'
'I know I'm a chump, but I still say - Suppose you changed your mind?'
'It's much more likely that you'll change yours.' 'What!'
'Suppose when your mother arrives she talks you over?'
'What absolute rot!'
'I don't imagine she will approve of me.'
'Of course she'll approve of you.'
'Lady Constance doesn't.'
Ronnie uttered a spirited cry.
'Aunt Constance! I was trying to think who it was we were talking about when that Pilbeam blister came to a head. Listen. If Aunt Constance tries to come the old aristocrat over you while I'm away, punch her in the eye. Don't put up for a moment with any pursed-lip-and-lorgnette stuff.'
'And what do I do when your mother reaches for her lorgnette ?'
'Oh, you won't have anything of that sort from Mother.'
'Hasn't she got a lorgnette?'
'Mother's all right.'
'Not like Lady Constance?'
'A bit, to look at. But quite different, really. Aunt Constance is straight Queen Elizabeth. Mother's a cheery soul.' 'She'll try to talk you over, all the same.' 'She won't.'
'She will. "Ronald, my dear boy, really! This absurd infatuation. Most extraordinary!" I can feel it in my bones.'
' Mother couldn't talk like that if you paid her. I keep telling you she's a genial egg.'
'She won't like me.'
'Of course she'll like you. Don't be ... what the dickens is that word.'
Sue-was biting her lip with her small, very white tooth. Her blue eyes had clouded.
'I wish you weren't going away, Ronnie.' 'It's only for tonight.' 'Have you really got to go?'
'Afraid so. Can't very well let poor old George down. He's relying on me. Besides, I want to watch his work at the altar rails. Pick up some hints on technique which'll come in useful when you and I...'
'If ever we do.'
'Do stop talking like that,' begged Ronnie.
'I'm sorry. But I do wish you hadn't got to go away. I'm scared. It's this place. It's so big and old. It makes me feel like a puppy that's got into a cathedral.'
Ronnie turned and gave his boyhood home an appraising glance.
'I suppose it is a fairly decent-sized old shack,' he admitted, having run his eye up to the battlements and back again. 'I never really gave the thing much thought before, but, now you mention it, I have seen smaller places. But there's nothing about it to scare anybody.'
'There is ^ if you were born and brought up in a villa in the suburbs. I feel that at any moment all the ghosts of your ancestors will come popping out, pointing at me and shouting "What business have you here, you little rat ?"'
'They'd better not let me catch them at it,' said Ronnie warmly. 'Don't be so... what on earth is that word ? I know it begins with an m. You mustn't feel like that. You've gone like a breeze here. Uncle Clarence likes you. Uncle Gally likes you. Everybody likes you - except Aunt Constance. And a fat lot we care what Aunt Constance thinks, what?'
'I keep worrying about your mother.'
'And I keep telling you...'
'I know. But I've got that funny feeling you get sometimes that things are going to happen. Trouble, trouble. A dark lady coming over the water.'
'Mother's fair.'
'It doesn't make it any better. I've got that presentiment.'
'Well, I don't see why you should. Everything's gone without a hitch so far.'
'That's just what I mean. I've been so frightfully happy, and I feel that all the beastly things that spoil happiness are just biding their time. Waiting. They can't do nothin' till Martin gets here!'
'Eh?'
'I was thinking of a thing one of the girls used to play on her gramophone in the dressing-room, the last show I was in. It was about a Negro who goes to a haunted house, and demon cats keep coming in, each bigger and more horrible than the last, and as each one comes in it says to the others, "Shall we start in on him now ?" and they shake their heads and say, "Not yet. We can't do nothin' till Martin gets here." Well, I can't help feeling that Martin soon will be here.'
Ronnie had found the word for which he had been searching. 'Morbid. I knew it began with an m. Don't be so dashed morbid!'
Sue gave herself a little shake, like a dog coming out of a pond. She put her arm in Ronnie's and gave it a squeeze. 'I suppose it is morbid.' 'Of course it is.' 'Everything may be all right.'
'Everything's going to be fine. Mother will be crazy about you. She won't be able to help herself. Because of all the ...'
On the verge of becom
ing lyrical, Ronnie broke off abruptly. The Castle car had just come round the corner from the stables with Voules, the chauffeur, at the helm.
'I didn't know it was as late as that,' said Ronnie discontentedly.
The car drew up beside them, and he eyed Voules with a touch of austerity. It was not that he disliked the chauffeur, a man whom he had known since his boyhood and one with whom he had many a time played village cricket. It was simply that there are moments when a fellow wishes to be free from observation, and one of these is when he is about to bid farewell to his affianced.
However, there was good stuff in Ronald Fish. Ignoring the chauffeur's eye, which betrayed a disposition to be roguish, he gathered his loved one to him and, his face now a pretty cerise, kissed her with all a Fish's passion. This done, he entered the car, leaned out of the window, waved, went on waving, and continued 30 to wave till Sue was out of sight. Then, sitting down, he gazed straight before him, breathing a little heavily through the nostrils.