"Пэлем Грэнвил Вудхауз. Much obliged, Jeeves (Премного обязан, Дживс; англ.)" - читать интересную книгу автора

'Don't I know it!'
'She's a charming girl,' I said, still wearing as above.
'That just describes her.'
'Intellectual, too.'
'Distinctly. Writes novels.'
'Always at it.'
'Did you read Spindrift?'
'Couldn't put it down,' I said, cunningly not revealing that I
hadn't been able to take it up. 'Did you see the play?'
'Twice. Too bad it didn't run. Gorringe's adaptation was the
work of an ass.'
'I spotted him as an ass the first time I saw him.'
'It's a pity Florence didn't.'
'Yes. By the way, what became of Gorringe? When last heard of,
she was engaged to him.'
'She broke it off.'
'Very wise of her. He had long side-whiskers.'
'She considered him responsible for the failure of the play and
told him so.'
'She would.'
'What do you mean she would?'
'Her nature is so frank, honest and forthright.'
'It is, isn't it.'
'She speaks her mind.'
'Invariably.'
'It's an admirable trait.'
'Oh, most.'
'You can't get away with much with a girl like Florence.'
'No.'
We fell into a silence. He was twiddling his fingers and a sort
of what-d'you-call-it had come into his manner, as if he wanted to
say something but was having trouble in getting it out. I
remembered encountering a similar diffidence in the Rev. Stinker
Pinker when he was trying to nerve himself to ask me to come to
Totleigh Towers, and you find the same thing in dogs when they put
a paw on your knee and look up into your face but don't utter,
though making it clear that there is a subject on which they are
anxious to touch.
'Bertie,' he said at length.
'Hullo?'
'Bertie.'
'Yes?'
'Bertie.'
'Still here. Excuse me asking, but have you any cracked
gramophone record blood in you? Perhaps your mother was frightened
by one?'
And then it all came out in a rush as if a cork had been
pulled.
'Bertie, there's something I must tell you about Florence,
though you probably know it already, being a cousin of hers. She's