JEEVES IN THE OFFING

A Jeeves and Wooster novel Aunt Dahlia was guilty of no exaggeration when she described Roberta Wickham as a one-girl beauty chorus. But Roberta also had the disposition and general outlook on life of a ticking bomb. You never knew what she was going to do next or into what murky depths of soup she would carelessly plunge you. And to Bertie Wooster these depths could not have been deeper nor more murky than at the moment he drew up in front of Brinkley Court.

For beneath this hospitable roof was assembled a company of guests which included the aforesaid Miss Wickham, the Rev. Aubrey Upjohn and an American female novelist whose son was suspected of being screwball. And, as if these were not enough, lurking in the background, masquerading as a most unlikely butler, was that most celebrated of all looney doctors, Sir Roderick Glossop. Had Jeeves been at his elbow, Bertie would doubtless have taken this situation triumphantly in his stride. But, alas, Jeeves was not there. He had taken himself off to some distant resort where he held a watching brief, advising and encouraging, but allowing the Young Master to make of it what he could.