"P. G. Wodehouse - Indiscretions of Archie v1 0" - читать интересную книгу автора (Wodehouse P G)

it almost appears as though the leading industry in that city was
the issuing of two-weeks' invitation-cards to clubs. Archie since
his arrival had been showered with these pleasant evidences of his
popularity; and he was now an honorary member of so many clubs of
various kinds that he had not time to go to them all. There were the
fashionable clubs along Fifth Avenue to which his friend Reggie van
Tuyl, son of his Florida hostess, had introduced him. There were the
businessmen's clubs of which he was made free by more solid
citizens. And, best of all, there were the Lambs', the Players', the
Friars', the Coffee-House, the Pen-and-Ink,--and the other resorts
of the artist, the author, the actor, and the Bohemian. It was in
these that Archie spent most of his time, and it was here that he
made the acquaintance of J. B. Wheeler, the popular illustrator.

To Mr. Wheeler, over a friendly lunch, Archie had been confiding
some of his ambitions to qualify as the hero of one of the Get-on-
or-get-out-young-man-step-lively-books.

"You want a job?" said Mr. Wheeler.

"I want a job," said Archie.

Mr. Wheeler consumed eight friend potatoes in quick succession. He
was an able trencherman.

"I always looked on you as one of our leading lilies of the field,"
he said. "Why this anxiety to toil and spin?"

"Well, my wife, you know, seems to think it might put me one-up with
the jolly old dad if I did something."

"And you're not particular what you do, so long as it has the outer
aspect of work?"

"Anything in the world, laddie, anything in the world."

"Then come and pose for a picture I'm doing," said J. B. Wheeler.
"It's for a magazine cover. You're just the model I want, and I'll
pay you at the usual rates. Is it a go?"

"Pose?"

"You've only got to stand still and look like a chunk of wood. You
can do that, surely?"

"I can do that," said Archie.

"Then come along down to my studio to-morrow."

"Eight-o!" said Archie.