‘And mice.’
‘She was flying to England next day, so I told her when I would be arriving and we arranged that she was to come here and have a look at the place. She should be turning up at any moment.’
‘Does Bill know she’s coming?’
‘No. I ought to have sent him a cable, but I forgot. Still, what does it matter? He’ll be only too delighted. The important thing is to keep you from putting her off with your mordant witticisms. “I often say in my amusing way, Mrs Spottsworth, that whereas in the summer months the river is at the bottom of the garden, in the winter months – ha, ha – the garden – this is going to slay you – is at the bottom of the river, ho, ho, ho.” That would just clinch the sale.’
‘Now would I be likely to drop a brick of that sort, old egg?’
‘Extremely likely, old crumpet. The trouble with you is that, though a king among men, you have no tact.’
Rory smiled. The charge tickled him.
‘No tact? The boys at Harrige’s would laugh if they heard that.’
‘Do remember that it’s vital to put this deal through.’
‘I’ll bear it in mind. I’m all for giving poor old Bill a leg-up. It’s a damn shame,’ said Rory, who often thought rather deeply on these subjects. ‘Bill starts at the bottom of the ladder as a mere heir to an earldom, and by pluck and perseverance works his way up till he becomes the Earl himself. And no sooner has he settled the coronet on his head and said to himself “Now to whoop it up!” than they pull a social revolution out of their hats like a rabbit and snitch practically every penny he’s got. Ah, well!’ said Rory with a sigh. ‘I say,’ he went on, changing the subject, ‘have you noticed, Moke, old girl, that throughout this little chat of ours – which I for one have thoroughly enjoyed – I have been pressing the bell at frequent intervals and not a damn thing has happened? What is this joint, the palace of the sleeping beauty? Or do you think the entire strength of the company has been wiped out by some plague or pestilence?’
‘Good heavens!’ said Monica, ‘bells at Rowcester Abbey don’t ring. I don’t suppose they’ve worked since Edward the Seventh’s days. If Uncle George wished to summon the domestic staff, he just shoved his head back and howled like a prairie wolf.’
‘That would have been, I take it, when he wanted somebody else’s boots to put on?’
‘You just open the door and walk in. Which is what I am about to do now. You bring the bags in from the car.’
‘Depositing them where?’
‘In the hall for the moment,’ said Monica. ‘You can take them upstairs later.’
She went in, and made her way to that familiar haunt, the living room off the hall where in her childhood days most of the life of Rowcester Abbey had centred. Like other English houses of its size, the abbey had a number of vast state apartments which were never used, a library which was used occasionally, and this living room, the popular meeting place. It was here that in earlier days she had sat and read the Girl’s Own Paper and, until the veto had been placed on her activities by her Uncle George, whose sense of smell was acute, had kept white rabbits. A big, comfortable, shabby room with french windows opening into the garden, at the bottom of which – in the summer months – the river ran.
As she stood looking about her, sniffing the old familiar smell of tobacco and leather and experiencing, as always, a nostalgic thrill and a vague wish that it were possible to put the clock back, there came through the french window a girl in overalls, who, having stared for a moment in astonishment, uttered a delighted squeal.
‘Moke … darling!’
Monica turned.
‘Jill, my angel!’
They flung themselves into each other’s arms.
3
* * *
JILL WYVERN WAS YOUNG, very pretty, slightly freckled and obviously extremely practical and competent. She wore her overalls as if they had been a uniform. Like Monica, she was small, and an admirer of hers, from Bloomsbury, had once compared her, in an unpublished poem, to a Tanagra statuette. It was not a very apt comparison, for Tanagra statuettes, whatever their merits, are on the static side and Jill was intensely alert and alive. She moved with a springy step and in her time had been a flashy outside-right on the hockey field.
‘My precious Moke,’ she said. ‘Is it really you? I thought you were in Jamaica.’
‘I got back this morning. I picked up Rory in London, and we motored down here. Rory’s outside, looking after the bags.’
‘How brown you are!’
‘That’s Montego Bay. I worked on this sunburn for three months.’
‘It suits you. But Bill didn’t say anything about expecting you. Aren’t you appearing rather suddenly?’
‘Yes, I cut my travels short rather suddenly. My allowance met those New York prices and gave up the ghost with a low moan. Ah, here’s the merchant prince.’
Rory came in, mopping his forehead.
‘What have you got in those bags of yours, old girl? Lead?’ He saw Jill, and stopped, gazing at her with wrinkled brow. ‘Oh, hullo,’ he said uncertainly.
‘You remember Jill Wyvern, Rory.’
‘Of course, yes. Jill Wyvern, to be sure. As you so sensibly observe, Jill Wyvern. You been telling her about your sunburn?’
‘She noticed it for herself.’
‘It does catch the eye. She says she’s that colour all over,’ said Rory confidentially to Jill. ‘Might raise a question or two from an old-fashioned husband, what? Still, I suppose it all makes for variety. So you’re Jill Wyvern, are you? How you’ve grown!’
‘Since when?’
‘Since … since you started growing.’
‘You haven’t a notion who I am, have you?’
‘I wouldn’t say that …’
‘I’ll help you out. I was at your wedding.’
‘You don’t look old enough.’
‘I was fifteen. They gave me the job of keeping the dogs from jumping on the guests. It was pouring, you may remember, and they all had muddy paws.’
‘Good God! Now I have you placed. So you were that little squirt. I noticed you bobbing about and thought what a frightful young excrescence you looked.’
‘My husband is noted for the polish of his manners,’ said Monica. ‘He is often called the modern Chesterfield.’
‘What I was about to add,’ said Rory with dignity, ‘was that she’s come on a lot since those days, showing that we should never despair. But didn’t we meet again some time?’
‘Yes, a year or two later when you stayed here one summer. I was just coming out then, and I expect I looked more of an excrescence than ever.’
Monica sighed.
‘Coming out! The dear old getting-ready-for-market stage! How it takes one back. Off with the glasses and the teeth-braces.’
‘On with things that push you in or push you out, whichever you needed.’
This was Rory’s contribution, and Monica looked at him austerely.
‘What do you know about it?’
‘Oh, I get around in our Ladies’ Foundation department,’ said Rory.
Jill laughed.
‘What I remember best are those agonized family conferences about my hockey-player’s hands. I used to walk about for hours holding them in the air.’
‘And how did you make out? Has it paid off yet?’
‘Paid off?’
Monica lowered her voice confidentially.
‘A man, dear. Did you catch anything worth while?’
‘I think he’s worth while. As a matter of fact, you don’t know it, but you’re moving in rather exalted circles. She whom you see before you is none other than the future Countess of Rowcester.’
Monica screamed excitedly.
‘You don’t mean you and Bill are engaged?’
‘That’s right.’
‘Since when?’
‘Some weeks ago.’
‘I’m delighted. I wouldn’t have thought Bill had so much sense.’
> ‘No,’ agreed Rory in his tactful way. ‘One raises the eyebrows in astonishment. Bill, as I remember it, was always more of a lad for the buxom, voluptuous type. Many a passionate romance have I seen him through with females who looked like a cross between pantomime Fairy Queens and all-in wrestlers. There was a girl in the Hippodrome chorus –’
He broke off these reminiscences, so fraught with interest to a fiancée, in order to say ‘Ouch!’ Monica had kicked him shrewdly on the ankle.
‘Tell me, darling,’ said Monica. ‘How did it happen? Suddenly?’
‘Quite suddenly. He was helping me give a cow a bolus –’
Rory blinked. ‘A –?’
‘Bolus. Medicine. You give it to cows. And before I knew what was happening, he had grabbed my hand and was saying, “I say, arising from this, will you marry me?”’
‘How frightfully eloquent. When Rory proposed to me, all he said was “Eh, what?”’
‘And it took me three weeks to work up to that,’ said Rory. His forehead had become wrinkled again. It was plain that he was puzzling over something. ‘This bolus of which you were speaking. I don’t quite follow. You were giving it to a cow, you say?’
‘A sick cow.’
‘Oh, a sick cow? Well, here’s the point that’s perplexing me. Here’s the thing that seems to me to need straightening out. Why were you giving boluses to sick cows?’
‘It’s my job. I’m the local vet.’
‘What! You don’t by any chance mean a veterinary surgeon?’
‘That’s right. Fully licensed. We’re all workers nowadays.’
Rory nodded sagely.
‘Profoundly true,’ he said. ‘I’m a son of toil myself.’
‘Rory’s at Harrige’s,’ said Monica.
‘Really?’
‘Floorwalker in the Hosepipe, Lawn Mower and Bird Bath department,’ said Rory. ‘But that is merely temporary. There’s a strong rumour going the rounds that hints at promotion to the Glass, Fancy Goods and Chinaware. And from there to the Ladies’ Underclothing is but a step.’
‘My hero!’ Monica kissed him lovingly. ‘I’ll bet they’ll all be green with jealousy.’
Rory was shocked at the suggestion.
‘Good God, no! They’ll rush to shake me by the hand and slap me on the back. Our esprit de corps is wonderful. It’s one for all and all for one in Harrige’s.’
Monica turned back to Jill.
‘And doesn’t your father mind you running about the country giving boluses to cows? Jill’s father,’ she explained to Rory, ‘is Chief Constable of the county.’
‘And very nice, too,’ said Rory.
‘I should have thought he would have objected.’
‘Oh, no. We’re all working at something. Except my brother Eustace. He won a Littlewood’s pool last winter and he’s gone frightfully upper class. Very high hat with the rest of the family. Moves on a different plane.’
‘Damn snob,’ said Rory warmly. ‘I hate class distinctions.’
He was about to speak further, for the subject was one on which he held strong opinions, but at this moment the telephone bell rang, and he looked round, startled.
‘For heaven’s sake! Don’t tell me the old boy has paid his telephone bill!’ he cried, astounded.
Monica took up the receiver.
‘Hullo? … Yes, this is Rowcester Abbey … No, Lord Rowcester is not in at the moment. This is his sister, Lady Carmoyle. The number of his car? It’s news to me that he’s got a car.’ She turned to Jill. ‘You don’t know the number of Bill’s car, do you?’
‘No. Why are they asking?’
‘Why are you asking?’ said Monica into the telephone. She waited a moment, then hung up. ‘He’s rung off.’
‘Who was it?’
‘He didn’t say. Just a voice from the void.’
‘You don’t think Bill’s had an accident?’
‘Good heavens, no,’ said Rory. ‘He’s much too good a driver. Probably he had to stop somewhere to buy some juice, and they need his number for their books. But it’s always disturbing when people don’t give their names on the telephone. There was a fellow in ours – second in command in the Jams, Sauces and Potted Meats – who was rung up one night by a Mystery Voice that wouldn’t give its name, and to cut a long story short –’
Monica did so.
‘Save it up for after dinner, my king of raconteurs,’ she said. ‘If there is any dinner,’ she added doubtfully.
‘Oh, there’ll be dinner all right,’ said Jill, ‘and you’ll probably find it’ll melt in the mouth. Bill’s got a very good cook.’
Monica stared.
‘A cook? These days? I don’t believe it. You’ll be telling me next he’s got a housemaid.’
‘He has. Name of Ellen.’
‘Pull yourself together, child. You’re talking wildly. Nobody has a housemaid.’
‘Bill has. And a gardener. And a butler. A wonderful butler called Jeeves. And he’s thinking of getting a boy to clean the knives and boots.’
‘Good heavens! It sounds like the home life of the Aga Khan.’ Monica frowned thoughtfully. ‘Jeeves?’ she said. ‘Why does that name seem to ring a bell?’
Rory supplied illumination.
‘Bertie Wooster. He has a man named Jeeves. This is probably a brother or an aunt or something.’
‘No,’ said Jill. ‘It’s the same man. Bill has him on lend-lease.’
‘But how on earth does Bertie get on without him?’
‘I believe Mr Wooster’s away somewhere. Anyhow, Jeeves appeared one day and said he was willing to take office, so Bill grabbed him, of course. He’s an absolute treasure. Bill says he’s an “old soul”, whatever that means.’
Monica was still bewildered.
‘But how about the financial end? Does he pay this entourage, or just give them a pleasant smile now and then?’
‘Of course he pays them. Lavishly. He flings them purses of gold every Saturday morning.’
‘Where does the money come from?’
‘He earns it.’
‘Don’t be silly. Bill hasn’t earned a penny since he was paid twopence a time for taking his castor oil. How could he possibly earn it?’
‘He’s doing some sort of work for the Agricultural Board.’
‘You don’t make a fortune out of that.’
‘Bill seems to. I suppose he’s so frightfully good at his job that they pay him more than the others. I don’t know what he does, actually. He just goes off in his car. Some kind of inspection, I suppose it is. Checking up on all those questionnaires. He’s not very good at figures, so he always takes Jeeves with him.’
‘Well, that’s wonderful,’ said Monica. ‘I was afraid he might have started backing horses again. It used to worry me so much in the old days, the way he would dash from race-course to race-course in a grey topper that he carried sandwiches in.’
‘Oh, no, it couldn’t be anything like that. He promised me faithfully he would never bet on a horse again.’
‘Very sensible,’ said Rory. ‘I don’t mind a flutter from time to time, of course. At Harrige’s we always run a Sweep on big events, five-bob chances. The brass hats frown on anything larger.’
Jill moved to the french window.
‘Well, I mustn’t stand here talking,’ she said. ‘I’ve got work to do. I came to attend to Bill’s Irish terrier. It’s sick of a fever.’
‘Give it a bolus.’
‘I’m giving it some new American ointment. It’s got mange. See you later.’
Jill went off on her errand of mercy, and Rory turned to Monica. His customary stolidity had vanished. He was keen and alert, like Sherlock Holmes on the trail.
‘Moke!’
‘Hullo?’
‘What do you make of it, old girl?’
‘Make of what?’
‘This sudden affluence of Bill’s. There’s something fishy going on here. If it had just been a matter of a simple butler, one could have understo
od it. A broker’s man in disguise, one would have said. But how about the housemaid and the cook and the car and, by Jove, the fact that he’s paid his telephone bill.’
‘I see what you mean. It’s odd.’
‘It’s more than odd. Consider the facts. The last time I was at Rowcester Abbey, Bill was in the normal state of destitution of the upper-class Englishman of today, stealing the cat’s milk and nosing about in the gutters for cigar ends. I come here now, and what do I find? Butlers in every nook and cranny, housemaids as far as the eye can reach, cooks jostling each other in the kitchen, Irish terriers everywhere, and a lot of sensational talk going on about boys to clean the knives and boots. It’s … what’s the word?’
‘I don’t know.’
‘Yes, you do. Begins with “in”.’
‘Influential? Inspirational? Infra red?’
‘Inexplicable. That’s what it is. The whole thing is utterly inexplicable. One dismisses all that stuff about jobs with the Agricultural Board as pure eyewash. You don’t cut a stupendous dash like this on a salary from the Agricultural Board.’ Rory paused, and ruminated for a moment. ‘I wonder if the old boy’s been launching out as a gentleman burglar.’
‘Don’t be an idiot.’
‘Well, fellows do, you know. Raffles, if you remember. He was one, and made a dashed good thing out of it. Or could it be that he’s blackmailing somebody?’
‘Oh, Rory.’
‘Very profitable, I believe. You look around for some wealthy bimbo and nose out his guilty secrets, then you send him a letter saying that you know all and tell him to leave ten thousand quid in small notes under the second milestone on the London road. When you’ve spent that, you tap him for another ten. It all mounts up over a period of time, and would explain these butlers, housemaids and what not very neatly.’
‘If you would talk less drivel and take more bags upstairs, the world would be a better place.’
Rory thought it over and got her meaning.
‘You want me to take the bags upstairs?’
‘I do.’
‘Right ho. The Harrige motto is Service.’