The Small Bachelor by P G Wodehouse

Author:P G Wodehouse [Wodehouse, P G]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction
ISBN: 9780140085068
Google: PiV42I-RkoMC
Amazon: 0140085068
Publisher: Random House
Published: 1970-01-01T13:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TEN

H

amilton Beamish strolled out into the hall. Something attempted, something done, had earned a cigarette. He was just lighting one, when there was a grinding of wheels on the gravel, and through the open door he saw Madame Eulalie alighting from a red two-seater car. He skipped joyously to meet her.

‘So you managed to come after all!’

Madame Eulalie shook his hand with that brisk amiability which was one of her main charms.

‘Yes. But I’ve got to turn right round and go back again. I’ve three appointments this afternoon. I suppose you’re staying on for the wedding?’

‘I had intended to. I promised George I would be his best man.’

‘That’s a pity. I could have driven you back.’

‘Oh, I can easily cancel the thing,’ said Hamilton Beamish quickly. ‘In fact, I will, directly George returns. He can get dozens of best men – dozens.’

‘Returns? Where has he gone?’

‘To the station.’

‘What a nuisance. I came specially to see him. Still, it doesn’t matter. I had better see Miss Waddington for a moment, I suppose.’

‘She is out.’

Madame Eulalie raised her eyebrows.

‘Doesn’t anybody stay in the house in these parts when there’s going to be a wedding?’

‘There has been a slight accident,’ explained Hamilton Beamish. ‘The clergyman sprained his ankle, and Mrs Waddington and Molly have gone to Flushing to pick up an understudy. And George has gone to the station . . .’

‘Yes, why has George gone to the station?’

Hamilton Beamish hesitated. Then, revolted by the thought that he should be hiding anything from this girl, he spoke.

‘Can you keep a secret?’

‘I don’t know. I’ve never tried.’

‘Well, this is something quite between ourselves. Poor George is in trouble.’

‘Any worse trouble than most bridegrooms?’

‘I wish you would not speak like that,’ said Hamilton Beamish, pained. ‘You seem to mock at Love.’

‘Oh, I’ve nothing against Love.’

‘Thank you, thank you!’

‘Don’t mention it.’

‘Love is the only thing worth-while in the world. In peace, Love tunes the shepherd’s reed, in war he mounts the warrior’s steed . . .’

‘Yes, doesn’t he. You were going to tell me what George is in trouble about.’

Hamilton Beamish lowered his voice.

‘Well, the fact is, on the eve of his wedding an old acquaintance of his has suddenly appeared.’

‘Female?’

‘Female.’

‘I begin to see.’

‘George wrote her letters. She still has them.’

‘Worse and worse.’

‘And if she makes trouble it will stop the wedding. Mrs Waddington is only waiting for an excuse to forbid it. Already, she has stated in so many words that she is suspicious of George’s morals.’

‘How absurd! George is like the driven snow.’

‘Exactly. A thoroughly fine-minded man. Why, I remember him once leaving the table at a bachelor dinner because some one told an improper story.’

‘How splendid of him! What was the story?’

‘I don’t remember. Still, Mrs Waddington has this opinion of him, so there it is.’

‘All this sounds very interesting. What are you going to do about it?’

‘Well, George has gone to the station to try to intercept this Miss Stubbs and reason with her.’

‘Miss Stubbs?’

‘That is her name. By the way, she comes from your hometown, East Gilead.

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