I heaved a sigh, and at that moment there was a knock at the door.
“Someone at the door, Jeeves,” I said.
“Yes, sir.”
He opened the door, and in came Aline Hemmingway and her brother. The last persons I had expected. I really had thought that I could be alone for a minute in my own room.
“Oh, hallo!” I said.
“Oh, Mr Wooster!” said the girl. “I don’t know how to begin.”
Then I noticed that she appeared shocked, and as for the brother, he looked like a sheep with a secret sorrow.
This made me sit up and take notice. I supposed that they had arrived to chat a little, but apparently something serious had happened.
“What’s the matter?” I asked.
“Poor Sidney—it was my fault—I ought never to have let him go there alone,” said the girl, she was agitated.
At this point her brother gave a little cough[67], like a sheep caught in the mist on a mountain top.
“The fact is, Mr Wooster,” he said, “a sad, a most deplorable thing has occurred. This afternoon, while you were so kindly escorting my sister, I found the time … I was tempted to—ah—gamble at the Casino.”
I looked at the man with respect. If only I’d known earlier that he went in for that sort of thing, I felt that we might have had a better time together.
“Oh!” I said. “Did you win?”
He sighed heavily.
“If you mean was I successful, I must answer in the negative. I thought that the colour red, having appeared no fewer than seven times in succession, must inevitably give place the colour black. I was in error. I lost everything, Mr Wooster.”
“Bad luck,” I said.
“I left the Casino,” proceeded the fellow, “and returned to the hotel. There I encountered one of my parishioners, Colonel Musgrave[68]. I—er—asked him to cash me a cheque for one hundred pounds on my little account in my London bank.”
“Well, that was all to the good, eh?” I said. “I mean, you were lucky to find someone who gave you some money.”
“On the contrary, Mr Wooster, it made matters worse. I burn with shame, but I immediately went back to the Casino and lost the entire sum—this time under the mistaken supposition that the colour black would appear.”
“I say!” I said. “You are having a good time!”
“And,” concluded the fellow, “the most lamentable part of the whole affair is that I have no funds in the bank to meet the cheque when presented[69].”
Though I realized by this time that all this was leading up to draw money from me, my heart warmed to the poor guy. Indeed, I gazed at him with interest and admiration. Never before had I encountered such a curate. He certainly appeared to be a real daredevil; and I wished he had shown me this side of his character before.
“That Colonel Musgrave,” he went on, “is not a man who would be likely to overlook the matter. He is a hard man. He will expose me to the priest. The priest is a hard man, too. In short, Mr Wooster, if Colonel Musgrave presents that cheque, I shall be ruined. And he leaves for England tonight.”
The girl, who had been standing by biting her handkerchief, now wept.
“Mr Wooster,” she cried, “won’t you, won’t you help us? Oh, do say you will! We must have the money to get back the cheque from Colonel Musgrave before nine o’clock—he leaves on the nine-twenty. I remembered how kind you had always been. Mr Wooster, will you lend Sidney the money and take these as security?”
And before I knew what she was doing she had dived into her bag, taken a case, and opened it.
“My pearls,” she said. “I don’t know what they are worth—they were a present from my poor father—”
“Now, alas, no more—” said her the brother.
“But I know they must be worth ever so much more than the amount we want.”
It was embarrassing. It made me feel like a pawnbroker.
“No, I say, really,” I protested. “There’s no need of any security, you know. Only too glad to let you have the money. I’ve got it on me, as a matter of fact. Rather luckily drew some this morning.”
And I took the money out of my pocket and laid it on the table. The brother shook his head.
“Mr Wooster,” he said, “we appreciate your generosity, your confidence in us, but we cannot permit this.”
“What Sidney means,” said the girl, “is that you really don’t know anything about us. You mustn’t risk lending all this money without any security at all to two people who, after all, are almost strangers. If I hadn’t thought that you would treat it like some business I would never have dared to come to you.”
“The idea of—er—pledging the pearls at the local pawnbroker shop was, you will readily understand, repugnant to us,” said the brother.
“If you will just give me a receipt, as a matter of form[70]—”
“All right!”
I wrote out the receipt and handed it over.
“Here you are,” I said.
The girl took the piece of paper, put it in her bag, grabbed the money and slipped it to brother Sidney, and then, before I knew what was happening, she had darted at me, kissed me, and legged it from the room.
I’m bound to say this surprised me a lot. So sudden and unexpected. I mean, a girl like that. Always been quiet and demure. Through a sort of mist I could see that Jeeves had appeared and was helping the brother on with his coat. His coat was more like a sack than anything else. Then the brother came up to me and grasped my hand.
“I cannot thank you sufficiently, Mr Wooster!”
“Oh, not at all.”
“You have saved my good name. Good name in man or woman,” he said, “is the immediate jewel of their souls. Who steals my purse steals trash. It was mine, it was his, and has been slave to thousands. But he that steals my good name robs me and makes me poor indeed. I thank you from the bottom of my heart. Good night, Mr Wooster.”
“Good night, old man,” I said.
I blinked at Jeeves as the door shut.
“Rather a sad affair, Jeeves,” I said.
“Yes, sir.”
“Luckily I happened to have all that money.”
“Well—er—yes, sir.”
“You speak as though you didn’t think much of it.”
“I can’t criticize your actions, sir, but I can say that I think you behaved a little rashly.”
“What, lending that money?”
“Yes, sir. These fashionable French watering places[71] are famous for dishonest characters.”
This was incredible.
“Now look here, Jeeves,” I said. “I can stand a lot but now you are going to slander that holy man!”
“Perhaps I am over-suspicious, sir. But I have seen a great deal of these resorts. When I was in the employment of Lord Frederick Ranelagh[72], shortly before I entered your service, his lordship was swindled by a criminal known as Soapy Sid[73], who was acting us in Monte Carlo with his helper. His helper was a nice girl. I have never forgotten the circumstances.”
“I don’t want to argue with you, Jeeves,” I said, coldly, “but you’re talking nonsense. How could I be cheated? They’ve left me the pearls, haven’t they? Very well, then, think before you speak. You had better have these things hidden in the hotel safe.” I picked up the case and opened it.
“Oh, Lord!”
The case was empty!
“Oh, Jesus!” I said, staring. “So, I’ve been cheated?”
“Precisely, sir. It was in exactly the same manner that Lord Frederick was swindled. While the girl was gratefully embracing his lordship, Soapy Sid substituted a duplicate case for the one containing the pearls and went off with the jewels, the money and the receipt. Later he subsequently demanded from his lordship the return of the pearls, and his lordship was obliged to pay a heavy sum[74] in compensation. It is a simple but effective ruse.”