Hot Water by P. G. Wodehouse

Author:P. G. Wodehouse [Wodehouse, P. G.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Classics, Humor, Fiction
ISBN: 9781409063650
Publisher: Random House
Published: 2012-05-26T16:02:54+00:00

CHAPTER 10

1

GORDON CARLISLE was a man who in his time had played many parts. Starting at the bottom of the ladder as the genial young fellow who had found a ruby ring in the street and was anxious, as the bally thing was of no use to him, to sell it for what it would fetch, he had worked his way up by sheer talent and application to the top of his profession. To impersonate even a South American hidalgo with title deeds to lands rich in oil and minerals was nowadays a mere nothing to him.

It is not to be supposed, therefore, that the task of depicting a member of the French aristocracy would occasion him any concern. He was glowing with careless confidence. He felt that these people, whoever they were, were seeing him at his best.

Packy, on the other hand, though a young man not easily put out of countenance, was experiencing an attack of something akin to panic. He had not anticipated that he would be called upon to forgather with Ducs. And if this encounter had to take place, he wished fervently that it had not occurred in the presence of Miss Putnam. He knew his Putnam. Unless forcibly prevented, she was very shortly going to say how nice it would be for a Vicomte and a Duc to have somebody with whom they could converse in their own language.

At the moment, she was occupied with greeting the handsome guest.

'How do you do, Duke? I am Mrs Gedge's secretary.'

'Mademoiselle!' said Mr Carlisle, bowing.

Miss Putnam beamed upon this worthy upholder of the politesse of the ancien régime.

'I hope you had a pleasant journey?'

'Most, thank you. The sea was like a...'

'Mill-pond?' said Miss Putnam. A student of crossword puzzles, she was seldom at a loss.

'A meal-pont. Exactly. And this gentleman?'

'This is the Vicomte de Blissac. How nice it will be...'

It seemed to Packy that at the mention of the Vicomte's name some kind of fleeting emotion had shown itself for an instant in the visitor's face, but he was too preoccupied with his own predicament to give it attention. He plunged desperately into small-talk.

'How do you do? Nice to see you.'

'It is to me,' replied Mr Carlisle with his unfailing politeness, 'a great privilege to visit your historic Château. The Château Blissac has figured much in our country's history.'

'You are not from these parts?'

'Ah, no. My estates are in Touraine.'

'Have you come from Paris?'

'From England.'

'By boat?'

'Yais.'

'How nice...' said Miss Putnam.

'So many people,' said Packy quickly, 'fly nowadays.'

'Ah, yais.'

'I am very fond of flying.'

'I also.'

'There is something about flying.'

'Yais.'

'So much quicker.'

'Yais.'

'How nice...'

'Think,' said Packy, 'what a lot of time one wastes on the train and then on the boat, coming to a place like this.'

'Yais.'

'In a 'plane it would have taken you only an hour or two to get here.'

'Yais.'

'Still, you did get here, didn't you, Duke?' said Miss Putnam, smiling in a roguish sort of way. 'And how nice it will be for you, having somebody to talk to in your own language.

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