Summer Moonshine by P. G. Wodehouse Read Free Book Online Page A

did not intend to imply that we were not acquainted. I know him very well. And my bet is that I shall be able to sway him like a reed.'
    'But how?'
    'I shall appeal to his better feelings.'
    'Do you think that will do any good?'
    'Who knows? Quite possibly, though I have never actually spotted it yet, he has a heart of gold.'
    'And if he hasn't?'
    'Why, then we must try something else. But I fancy everything will be all right.'
    Jane laughed.
    'That's what my mother always says. Whatever happens, all she says is "I guess everything's going to be all right".'
    'A very sensible woman,' said Joe approvingly. 'I look forward to meeting her. Well, I'm sure we shall be able to achieve the happy ending in this case. Have no further anxiety.'
    'I'm afraid I don't feel so confident as you.'
    'That is because you don't know your man.'
    'Busby?'
    'Me. When you come to know me better, you will be amazed at my gifts. And now the only thing we have not decided is: Will you wait here, or will you go on?'
    'Go on?'
    'And book a table. I think we might lunch at the Savoy, don't you? It's handy.'
    'But I've a luncheon engagement.'
    'Then perhaps you had better go on. That will give you time to telephone and break it.'
    Jane reflected. If this extraordinary young man really was in a position to persuade Mortimer Busby to see the light, the least she could do in return was to lunch with him.
    'It will do me good,' he pointed out, 'to be seen in public with a girl in a hat like that. My social prestige will be enhanced.'
    'I was only lunching with some friends,' said Jane, wavering.
    'Then trot along and telephone. I will be with you in a few minutes. The Grill, I think, not the restaurant. It is quieter, and I shall have much to say to you.'
    It was some quarter of an hour later that Jane, sitting in the lobby of the Savoy Grill, was informed that she was wanted on the telephone. She went to the box reluctantly Mabel Purvis, who had arranged the old school friends' reunion from which, a few moments before, she had excused herself, had been plaintive and expostulatory on the wire, and she feared that this was Mabel, about to be plaintive again.
    'Hullo,' she said. This is Imogen.'
    But it was a male voice that spoke:
    'Oh, there you are. Well, it's all fixed.'
    'What?'
    'Yes. Busby has receipted the bill.'
    'Not the whole bill.'
    'In full.'
    'Ooh!'
    'I thought you would be pleased.'
    'But you're a perfect marvel. However did you manage it?'
    'Full details will be supplied when we meet.'
    'When will that be?'
    'In a trice.'
    'Good. Do hurry.'
    'I will. Oh, and one other thing.'
    'Yes?'
    'Will you marry me?'
    'What?'
    'Marry me.'
    'Did you say, would I marry you?'
    'That's right. Marry. M for mayonnaise—'
    Jane began to giggle feebly.
    'Are you sobbing?' said the voice.
    'I'm laughing.'
    'Not so good. I don't like the sound of that. Mocking laughter, eh? No, rather sinister. You won't marry me?'
    'No.'
    'Then will you order me a medium dry Martini? I'll be right along.'

CHAPTER 5
    'W HY not?' asked Joe.
    Jane was inspecting her plate of hors d'oeuvres, conscious, when it was too late, as everybody is, that she had made the wrong choice.
    'Don't you always feel,' she said, 'that what you really want is just sardines?'
    'I thought I had made it abundantly clear that I wanted you.'
    'I mean, instead of a lot of potato salad and pickled cabbage.'
    'Don't let us wander off on to the subject of potato salad,' he said gently. 'You don't seem to realize that I have paid you the greatest compliment a man can pay a woman – or so I read somewhere.'
    'Oh, I do.'
    'Then stick to the point and let us have none of this light talk about pickled cabbage. I asked you to marry me. You said you wouldn't. I now come right back at you by asking: Why not?'
    'I promised mother I would never marry a man I had only known five minutes.'
    'More like twenty, surely.'
    'Well, even twenty.'
    'You're upsetting all my plans.'
    'I'm sorry. But you do realize, don't you, that we