Psmith in the City, P. G. Wodehouse [beach read TXT] 📗

of Peace over the Postage Department was setting up a positive draught. Mike, who had been introduced by Psmith as a distant relative of Moger, the goalkeeper, was included in the great peace.

“So that now,” said Psmith, reflectively polishing his eyeglass, “I think that we may consider ourselves free to attend to Comrade Bickersdyke. Our bright little Mancunian friend would no more run us in now than if we were the brothers Turnbull. We are as inside forwards to him.”

The club to which Psmith and Mr. Bickersdyke belonged was celebrated for the steadfastness of its political views, the excellence of its cuisine, and the curiously Gorgonzolaesque marble of its main staircase. It takes all sorts to make a world. It took about four thousand of all sorts to make the Senior Conservative Club. To be absolutely accurate, there were three thousand seven hundred and eighteen members.

To Mr. Bickersdyke for the next week it seemed as if there was only one.

There was nothing crude or overdone about Psmith’s methods. The ordinary man, having conceived the idea of haunting a fellow clubman, might have seized the first opportunity of engaging him in conversation. Not so Psmith. The first time he met Mr. Bickersdyke in the club was on the stairs after dinner one night. The great man, having received practical proof of the excellence of cuisine referred to above, was coming down the main staircase at peace with all men, when he was aware of a tall young man in the “faultless evening dress” of which the female novelist is so fond, who was regarding him with a fixed stare through an eyeglass. The tall young man, having caught his eye, smiled faintly, nodded in a friendly but patronizing manner, and passed on up the staircase to the library. Mr. Bickersdyke sped on in search of a waiter.

As Psmith sat in the library with a novel, the waiter entered, and approached him.

“Beg pardon, sir,” he said. “Are you a member of this club?”

Psmith fumbled in his pocket and produced his eyeglass, through which he examined the waiter, button by button.

“I am Psmith,” he said simply.

“A member, sir?”

“The member,” said Psmith. “Surely you participated in the general rejoicings which ensued when it was announced that I had been elected? But perhaps you were too busy working to pay any attention. If so, I respect you. I also am a worker. A toiler, not a flatfish. A sizzler, not a squab. Yes, I am a member. Will you tell Mr. Bickersdyke that I am sorry, but I have been elected, and have paid my entrance fee and subscription.”

“Thank you, sir.”

The waiter went downstairs and found Mr. Bickersdyke in the lower smoking-room.

“The gentleman says he is, sir.”

“H’m,” said the bank-manager. “Coffee and Benedictine, and a cigar.”

“Yes, sir.”

On the following day Mr. Bickersdyke met Psmith in the club three times, and on the day after that seven. Each time the latter’s smile was friendly, but patronizing. Mr. Bickersdyke began to grow restless.

On the fourth day Psmith made his first remark. The manager was reading the evening paper in a corner, when Psmith sinking gracefully into a chair beside him, caused him to look up.

“The rain keeps off,” said Psmith.

Mr. Bickersdyke looked as if he wished his employee would imitate the rain, but he made no reply.

Psmith called a waiter.

“Would you mind bringing me a small cup of coffee?” he said. “And for you,” he added to Mr. Bickersdyke.

“Nothing,” growled the manager.

“And nothing for Mr. Bickersdyke.”

The waiter retired. Mr. Bickersdyke became absorbed in his paper.

“I see from my morning paper,” said Psmith, affably, “that you are to address a meeting at the Kenningford Town Hall next week. I shall come and hear you. Our politics differ in some respects, I fear⁠—I incline to the Socialist view⁠—but nevertheless I shall listen to your remarks with great interest, great interest.”

The paper rustled, but no reply came from behind it.

“I heard from father this morning,” resumed Psmith.

Mr. Bickersdyke lowered his paper and glared at him.

“I don’t wish to hear about your father,” he snapped.

An expression of surprise and pain came over Psmith’s face.

“What!” he cried. “You don’t mean to say that there is any coolness between my father and you? I am more grieved than I can say. Knowing, as I do, what a genuine respect my father has for your great talents, I can only think that there must have been some misunderstanding. Perhaps if you would allow me to act as a mediator⁠—”

Mr. Bickersdyke put down his paper and walked out of the room.

Psmith found him a quarter of an hour later in the card room. He sat down beside his table, and began to observe the play with silent interest. Mr. Bickersdyke, never a great performer at the best of times, was so unsettled by the scrutiny that in the deciding game of the rubber he revoked, thereby presenting his opponents with the rubber by a very handsome majority of points. Psmith clicked his tongue sympathetically.

Dignified reticence is not a leading characteristic of the bridge player’s manner at the Senior Conservative Club on occasions like this. Mr. Bickersdyke’s partner did not bear his calamity with manly resignation. He gave tongue on the instant. “What on earth’s” and “Why on earth’s” flowed from his mouth like molten lava. Mr. Bickersdyke sat and fermented in silence. Psmith clicked his tongue sympathetically throughout.

Mr. Bickersdyke lost that control over himself which every member of a club should possess. He turned on Psmith with a snort of frenzy.

“How can I keep my attention fixed on the game when you sit staring at me like a⁠—like a⁠—”

“I am sorry,” said Psmith gravely, “if my stare falls short in any way of your ideal of what a stare should be; but I appeal to these gentlemen. Could I have watched the game more quietly?”

“Of course not,” said the bereaved partner warmly. “Nobody could have any earthly objection to your behaviour. It was absolute carelessness. I should have thought that one might have expected one’s partner at a club like this to exercise elementary⁠—”

But Mr. Bickersdyke had gone. He had melted silently away like