The Jeeves Omnibus - Vol 1: (Jeeves & Wooster): No.1 Read Online Free

banjolele he would resign. I accepted his portfolio.’
    ‘You’ve really let him go?’
    ‘I have.’
    ‘Well, well, well!’
    I waved a hand nonchalantly.
    ‘These things happen,’ I said. ‘I’m not pretending I’m pleased, of course, but I can bite the bullet. My self-respect would not permit me to accept the man’s terms. You can push a Wooster just so far. “Very good, Jeeves,” I said to him. “So be it. I shall watch your future career with considerable interest.” And that was that.’
    We walked on for a bit in silence.
    ‘So you’ve parted with Jeeves, have you?’ said Chuffy, in a thoughtful sort of voice. ‘Well, well, well! Any objection to my looking in and saying goodbye to him?’
    ‘None whatever.’
    ‘It would be a graceful act.’
    ‘Quite.’
    ‘I’ve always admired his intellect.’
    ‘Me too. No one more.’
    ‘I’ll go round to the flat after lunch.’
    ‘Follow the green line,’ I said, and my manner was airy and even careless. This parting of the ways with Jeeves had made me feel a bit as if I had just stepped on a bomb and was trying to piece myself together again in a bleak world, but we Woosters can keep the stiff upper lip.
    I lunched at the Drones and spent the afternoon there. I had much to think of. Chuffy’s news that there was a troupe of nigger minstrels performing on the Chuffnell Regis sands had definitely weighed the scale down on the side of the advantages of the place. The fact that I would be in a position to forgather with these experts and possibly pick up a hint or two from their banjoist on fingering and execution enabled me to bear with fortitude the prospect of being in a spot where I would probably have to meet the Dowager Lady Chuffnell and her son Seabury pretty frequently. I had often felt how tough it must be for poor old Chuffy having this pair of pustules popping in and out all the time. And in saying this I am looking straight at little Seabury, a child who should have been strangled at birth. I have no positive proof, but I have always been convinced that it was he who put the lizard in my bed the last time I stayed at the Hall.
    But, as I say, I was prepared to put up with this couple in return for the privilege of being in close communication with a really hot banjoist, and most of these nigger minstrel chaps can pick the strings like nobody’s business. It was not, therefore, the thought of them which, as I returned to the flat to dress for dinner, was filling me with a strange moodiness.
    No. We Woosters can be honest with ourselves. What was giving me the pip was the reflection that Jeeves was about to go out of my life. There never had been anyone like Jeeves, I felt, as I climbed sombrely into the soup and fish, and there never would be. A wave of not unmanly sentiment poured over me. I was conscious of a pang. And when my toilet was completed and I stood before the mirror, surveying that perfectly pressed coat, those superbly creased trousers, I came to a swift decision.
    Abruptly, I went into the sitting-room and leaned on the bell.
    ‘Jeeves,’ I said. ‘A word.’
    ‘Yes, sir?’
    ‘Jeeves,’ I said, ‘touching on our conversation this morning.’
    ‘Yes, sir?’
    ‘Jeeves,’ I said, ‘I have been thinking things over. I have come to the conclusion that we have both been hasty. Let us forget the past. You may stay on.’
    ‘It is very kind of you, sir, but … are you still proposing to continue the study of that instrument?’
    I froze.
    ‘Yes, Jeeves, I am.’
    ‘Then I fear, sir …’
    It was enough. I nodded haughtily.
    ‘Very good, Jeeves. That is all. I will of course, give you an excellent recommendation.’
    ‘Thank you, sir. It will not be necessary. This afternoon I entered the employment of Lord Chuffnell.’
    I started.
    ‘Did Chuffy sneak round here this afternoon and scoop you in?’
    ‘Yes, sir. I go with him to Chuffnell Regis in about a week’s time.’
    ‘You do, do you? Well, it may