Plum Pie by P. G. Wodehouse

Author:P. G. Wodehouse [Wodehouse, P. G.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Classics, Humour
ISBN: 9781590200100
Publisher: Overlook Press
Published: 1966-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

It was a Bingo with heart bowed down and feeling more like a toad beneath a harrow than the editor of a journal for the nursery and the home who returned to the offices of Wee Tots and endeavoured to concentrate on the letters which had come in from subscribers for the Correspondence page. He took up a communication from Edwin Waters (aged seven) about his Siamese cat Miggles, but he found his attention wandering. He found the same difficulty in becoming engrossed in four pages from Alexander Allbright (aged six) about his tortoise Shelley, and he had started on a lengthy screed from Anita Ellsworth (aged eight) which seemed to have to do with a canary of the name of Birdie, when the door of the inner office opened and Mr. Purkiss appeared.

"Ah, there you are, Mr. Little," said H. C. Purkiss. "Are you engaged for dinner tonight?"

Which, if you remember, is where we came in. Bingo replied hollowly that he was not, and might have added that if his employer was about to invite him to share the evening meal, he was prepared to defend himself with tooth and claw.

"I thought that Mrs. Little might be having guests."

"She's at Droitwich with her mother. Her mother is taking the brine baths. She has rheumatism."

"Splendid. Excellent. Capital," said Mr. Purkiss, hastening to, explain that it was not the fact of Bingo's mother-in-law having trouble with her joints that exhilarated him. "Then you are free. I am delighted to hear it. Tell me, Mr. Little, are you familiar with the work of an American author of juvenile fiction named Kirk Rockaway? No? I am not surprised. He is almost unknown on this side of the Atlantic, but his Peter the Pup, Kootchy the Kitten and Hilda the Hen are, I understand, required reading for the children of his native country. I have glanced at some of his works and they are superb. He is just the circulation-builder Wee Tots needs. He is here in London on a visit."

Bingo was a conscientious editor. His personal affairs might be in a state of extreme disorder, but he was always able to shelve his private worries when it was a matter of doing his paper a bit of good.

"We'd better go after him before those blighters at Small Fry get ahead of us," he said.

Mr. Purkiss smiled triumphantly.

"I have already done so. I met him at a tea party given in his honour yesterday, and he has accepted an invitation to dine with me tonight at Barribault's Hotel."

"That's good."

"And this," said Mr. Purkiss,, "is better. At that tea party a most significant thing happened. Somebody mentioned Mrs. Little's books, and he turned out to be a warm admirer of them. He spoke of them with unbounded enthusiasm. You see what I am about to say, Mr. Little?"

"He wants her autograph?"

"That, of course, and I assured him that he could rely on her. But obviously tonight's arrangements must be changed. You, not I, must be his host.

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