following her remarks intelligently.
He finished the truite bleue and gave a final nod. It indicated a perfect grasp of the situation.
'My dear old soul,' he said reassuringly, 'say no more. I understand everything, understand it fully. As a matter of fact, Hugo Carmody had already tipped me off.'
'Oh have you seen Hugo ?'
'I met him at the club, and he warned me about Ronnie. I had the situation well in hand. On arriving at Blandings I was planning to treat you with distant civility.'
'Then I needn't have come up at all!'
'I wouldn't say that. If Ronnie's so apt to go off the deep end at the slightest provocation, we can't be too much on the safe side. Even distant civility might have hotted him up.'
Sue considered this.
'That's true,' she agreed.
'Better to be perfect strangers.'
'Yes.' Sue gave a little frown. 'How beastly it's all going to be, though.'
'That's all right. I shan't mind.'
'I wasn't thinking about you. It seems so rotten, deceiving Ronnie.'
'You've got to get used to that. Secret of a happy and successful married life. I thought you meant that it would be rather agony you and me just giving each other a distant bow when they introduced us and then shunning one another coldly. And it does seem darned silly, what? I mean, we were very close to each other once. Can one altogether forget those happy days ?'
'I can. And so must you. For goodness sake, Monty, don't let's have any of what Gally calls that touch of Auld Lang Syne.'
'No, no. Quite.'
'I don't want Ronnie driven off his head.' 'Far from it.'
'Well, do remember to be careful.' 'Oh, I will. Rely on me.'
'Thanks, Monty darling .. . What's the matter?' asked Sue, as her host gave a sudden start.
A waiter had brought up a silver dish and uncovered it with the air of one doing a conjuring trick. Monty inspected it with the proper seriousness.
'Oh, nothing,' he said as the waiter retired. 'Just that "Monty darling." It brought back the old days.'
' For goodness sake forget the old days!'
' Oh, quite. I will. Oh, rather. Most certainly. But it made me feel how rum life was. Life is rummy, you know. You can't get away from that.'
'I suppose it is.'
'Take a simple instance. Here are you and I, face to face across this table, lunching together like the dickens, precisely as in the dear old days, and all the time you are contemplating getting hitched up to R. Fish, while I am heart and soul in favour of an early union with Gertrude Butterwick.'
"What!'
'Butt erwick. B for blister, U for uke lele . ..' 'Yes, I heard. But do you mean you're engaged, too, Monty?' 'Well, yes and no. Not absolutely. And yet not absolutely not. I am, as it were, on appro.' 'Can't she make up her mind?'
'Oh, her mind's made up all right. Oh, yes, yes, yes, indeed there's no doubt about good old Gertrude's mind, bless her. She loves me like billy-o. But there are wheels within wheels.'
' What do you mean ?'
'It's an expression. It signifies ... well, by Jove, now you bring up the point,' said Monty frankly, 'I'm dashed if I know just what it does signify. Wheels within wheels. Why wheels? What wheels? Still, there it is. I suppose the idea is to suggest that everything's pretty averagely complicated.'
'I understand what it means, of course. But why do you say it about yourself?'
'Because there's a snag sticking up in the course of true love. A very sizeable, jagged snag. Her blighted father, to wit, J. G. Butterwick, of Butterwick, Price, and Mandelbaum, export and import merchants.'
He swallowed a roast potato emotionally. Sue was touched. She had never ceased to congratulate herself on her sagacity in breaking off her engagement to this young man, but she was very fond of him.
'Oh, Monty, I'm so sorry. Poor darling. Doesn't he like you ?' Monty weighed this.
'Well, I wouldn't say that exactly. On two separate occasions he has said good morning to me, and once, round about Christmas time, I received a distinct impression that he was within an ace of
He finished the truite bleue and gave a final nod. It indicated a perfect grasp of the situation.
'My dear old soul,' he said reassuringly, 'say no more. I understand everything, understand it fully. As a matter of fact, Hugo Carmody had already tipped me off.'
'Oh have you seen Hugo ?'
'I met him at the club, and he warned me about Ronnie. I had the situation well in hand. On arriving at Blandings I was planning to treat you with distant civility.'
'Then I needn't have come up at all!'
'I wouldn't say that. If Ronnie's so apt to go off the deep end at the slightest provocation, we can't be too much on the safe side. Even distant civility might have hotted him up.'
Sue considered this.
'That's true,' she agreed.
'Better to be perfect strangers.'
'Yes.' Sue gave a little frown. 'How beastly it's all going to be, though.'
'That's all right. I shan't mind.'
'I wasn't thinking about you. It seems so rotten, deceiving Ronnie.'
'You've got to get used to that. Secret of a happy and successful married life. I thought you meant that it would be rather agony you and me just giving each other a distant bow when they introduced us and then shunning one another coldly. And it does seem darned silly, what? I mean, we were very close to each other once. Can one altogether forget those happy days ?'
'I can. And so must you. For goodness sake, Monty, don't let's have any of what Gally calls that touch of Auld Lang Syne.'
'No, no. Quite.'
'I don't want Ronnie driven off his head.' 'Far from it.'
'Well, do remember to be careful.' 'Oh, I will. Rely on me.'
'Thanks, Monty darling .. . What's the matter?' asked Sue, as her host gave a sudden start.
A waiter had brought up a silver dish and uncovered it with the air of one doing a conjuring trick. Monty inspected it with the proper seriousness.
'Oh, nothing,' he said as the waiter retired. 'Just that "Monty darling." It brought back the old days.'
' For goodness sake forget the old days!'
' Oh, quite. I will. Oh, rather. Most certainly. But it made me feel how rum life was. Life is rummy, you know. You can't get away from that.'
'I suppose it is.'
'Take a simple instance. Here are you and I, face to face across this table, lunching together like the dickens, precisely as in the dear old days, and all the time you are contemplating getting hitched up to R. Fish, while I am heart and soul in favour of an early union with Gertrude Butterwick.'
"What!'
'Butt erwick. B for blister, U for uke lele . ..' 'Yes, I heard. But do you mean you're engaged, too, Monty?' 'Well, yes and no. Not absolutely. And yet not absolutely not. I am, as it were, on appro.' 'Can't she make up her mind?'
'Oh, her mind's made up all right. Oh, yes, yes, yes, indeed there's no doubt about good old Gertrude's mind, bless her. She loves me like billy-o. But there are wheels within wheels.'
' What do you mean ?'
'It's an expression. It signifies ... well, by Jove, now you bring up the point,' said Monty frankly, 'I'm dashed if I know just what it does signify. Wheels within wheels. Why wheels? What wheels? Still, there it is. I suppose the idea is to suggest that everything's pretty averagely complicated.'
'I understand what it means, of course. But why do you say it about yourself?'
'Because there's a snag sticking up in the course of true love. A very sizeable, jagged snag. Her blighted father, to wit, J. G. Butterwick, of Butterwick, Price, and Mandelbaum, export and import merchants.'
He swallowed a roast potato emotionally. Sue was touched. She had never ceased to congratulate herself on her sagacity in breaking off her engagement to this young man, but she was very fond of him.
'Oh, Monty, I'm so sorry. Poor darling. Doesn't he like you ?' Monty weighed this.
'Well, I wouldn't say that exactly. On two separate occasions he has said good morning to me, and once, round about Christmas time, I received a distinct impression that he was within an ace of
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