Blandings Castle and Elsewhere Read Free Page B

he said nervously. 'I think the best thing
would be for you to read this. Meant to leave it for you with the
hall-porter. It's –well, you just cast your eye over it. Good-bye,
guv'nor. Got to see a man.'
    And, thrusting the note into his father's hand, the Hon.
Freddie turned and was gone. Lord Emsworth, perplexed and
annoyed, watched him skim up the road and leap into a cab. He
seethed impotently. Practically any behaviour on the part of his
son Frederick had the power to irritate him, but it was when he
was vague and mysterious and incoherent that the young man
irritated him most.
    He looked at the letter in his hand, turned it over, felt it. Then
– for it had suddenly occurred to him that if he wished to
ascertain its contents he had better read it – he tore open the
envelope.
    The note was brief, but full of good reading matter.
    Dear Guvnor,
    Awfully sorry and all that, but couldn't hold out any longer.
I've popped up to London in the two-seater and Aggie and I were
spliced this morning. There looked like being a bit of a hitch at one
time, but Aggie's guv'nor, who has come over from America,
managed to wangle it all right by getting a special licence or
something of that order. A most capable Johnny. He's coming to
see you. He wants to have a good long talk with you about the
whole binge. Lush him up hospitably and all that, would you
mind, because he's a really sound egg, and you'll like him.
    Well, cheerio!
    Your affectionate son,
Freddie.
    P.S. – You won't mind if I freeze on to the two-seater for the
nonce, what? It may come in useful for the honeymoon.
     
    The Senior Conservative Club is a solid and massive building,
    but, as Lord Emsworth raised his eyes dumbly from the perusal of this letter,
    it seemed to him that it was performing a kind of whirling dance. The whole
    of the immediate neighbourhood, indeed, appeared to be shimmying in the middle
    of a thick mist. He was profoundly stirred. It is not too much to say that
    he was shaken to the core of his being. No father enjoys being flouted and
    defied by his own son; nor is it reasonable to expect a man to take a cheery
    view of life who is faced with the prospect of supporting for the remainder
    of his years a younger son, a younger son's wife, and possibly younger grandchildren.
    For an appreciable space of time he stood in the middle of the
pavement, rooted to the spot. Passers-by bumped into him or
grumblingly made détours to avoid a collision. Dogs sniffed at his
ankles. Seedy-looking individuals tried to arrest his attention in
order to speak of their financial affairs. Lord Emsworth heeded
none of them. He remained where he was, gaping like a fish,
until suddenly his faculties seemed to return to him.
    An imperative need for flowers and green trees swept upon
Lord Emsworth. The noise of the traffic and the heat of the sun
on the stone pavement were afflicting him like a nightmare. He
signalled energetically to a passing cab.
    'Kensington Gardens,' he said, and sank back on the cushioned
    seat.
     
    Something dimly resembling peace crept into his lordship's
soul as he paid off his cab and entered the cool shade of the
gardens. Even from the road he had caught a glimpse of stimulating
reds and yellows; and as he ambled up the asphalt path and
plunged round the corner the flower-beds burst upon his sight in
all their consoling glory.
    'Ah!' breathed Lord Emsworth, rapturously, and came to a
halt before a glowing carpet of tulips. A man of official aspect,
wearing a peaked cap and a uniform, stopped as he heard the
exclamation and looked at him with approval and even affection.
    'Nice weather we're 'avin',' he observed.
    Lord Emsworth did not reply. He had not heard. There is
that about a well-set-out bed of flowers which acts on men who
love their gardens like a drug, and he was in a sort of trance.
Already he had completely forgotten where he was, and seemed
to himself to be back in his paradise of Blandings. He drew a step
nearer to the