Jeeves in the Offing
Categories: [ Books/Wodehouse ]
© Amazon.fr
Published in 1960.
Bertie learns in the Times that he is engaged to Bobbie Wickham. Soon after, he is asked by Aunt Dahlia to come to Brinkley Court. Her goddaughter, Phillis Mills is already staying there and her stepfather, Aubrey Upjohn, Bertie's former schoolmaster, accompanied her; he is to deliver a speech at Market Snodsbury's grammar school in a few days. Moreover, Dahlia's husband Tom is negotiating with an american named Mr. Cream, who came to Brinkley Court with her wife, a mystery writer, and her son Willie. The latter has a reputation of a playboy, and Dahlia doesn't want him to get engaged to Phillis who is a bit of a slow thinker, and likely to fall for him. At Brinkley Court, Bobbie tells Bertie that the announcement was a plot to make her mother feel relieved when she tells her she is actually engaged to Reginald ‘Kipper’ Herring, a friend of Bertie's who is a columnist at a paper and recently wrote an acerbic critic of Upjohn's book on English grammar schools (of which Bertie and Kipper have terrible memories). Moreover, Bertie discovers that Roderick Glossop, the loony-doctor, is posing as the butler; he has actually been asked by Aunt Dahlia to evaluate the sanity of Willie Cream. Since Dahlia is temporarily away from the house, Bertie, as the acting host cannot tail Willie all the time to prevent him from proposing to Phillis, so he invites Kipper and asks him to replace him. Bertie then learns from Jeeves (who is currently on vacation) over the phone that Willie Cream is also a kleptomaniac, and soon discovers that Tom's silver cow creamer has disappeared from the collection. After Bertie fails twice at searching Willie's room, Glossop manages to recover the object. Meanwhile, Upjohn has seen the critic on his book and wants to sue the paper, meaning that Kipper would loose his position there and be barred from getting a new one. Soon after, one learns that Phillis got engaged to Willie and after a heated discussion with Upjohn, Dahlia (who came back) discovers that the Cream have two boys, Wilfred and Wilbur, and that the playboy is the other one; exasperated by Upjohn's smug attitude, she asks him to leave the house. Jeeves, who had come back on Bertie's call for help, packs his belongings and pinches the text of his speech. Since Upjohn is unable to deliver a speech without his notes and that the speech is impotant since it would start his political carreer, Bobbie blackmails him to drop the lawsuit for the return of the speech. Some time earlier, Mrs Cream had discover the silver cow creamer hidden among Glossop's belongings (who doesn't know that Tom actually sold it to Willie) and called the police. Since to defend himself Glossop would have to reveal that he was called to spy on Willie and thought the latter had stolen it, thus jeopardizing Tom's negotiations, Jeeves suggest to tell that Bertie is the kleptomaniac.
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