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

always has to budget for a change in the weather. Still, the thing
to do is to keep on being happy while you can.'
'Precisely, sir. Carpe diem, the Roman poet Horace advised. The
English poet Herrick expressed the same sentiment when he suggested
that we should gather rosebuds while we may. Your elbow is in the
butter, sir.'
'Oh, thank you, Jeeves.'Well, all right so far. Off to a nice
start. But now we come to something which gives me pause. In
recording the latest instalment of the Bertram Wooster Story, a
task at which I am about to have a pop, I don't see how I can avoid
delving into the past a good deal, touching on events which took
place in previous instalments, and explaining who's who and what
happened when and where and why, and this will make it heavy going
for those who have been with me from the start. 'Old hat' they will
cry or, if French, 'Deja vu'.
On the other hand, I must consider the new customers. I can't
just leave the poor perishers to try to puzzle things out for
themselves. If I did, the exchanges in the present case would run
somewhat as follows.
SELF: The relief I felt at having escaped from Totleigh
Towers was stupendous.
NEW C: What's Totleigh Towers?
SELF: For one thing it had looked odds on that I should have
to marry Madeline.
NEW C: Who's Madeline?
SELF: Gussie Fink-Nottle, you see, had eloped with the cook.
NEW C: Who's Gussie Fink-Nottle?
SELF: But most fortunately Spode was in the offing and scooped
her up, saving me from the scaffold.
NEW C: Who's Spode?
You see. Hopeless. Confusion would be rife, as one might put
it. The only way out that I can think of is to ask the old gang to
let their attention wander for a bit - there are heaps of things
they can be doing; washing the car, solving the crossword puzzle,
taking the dog for a run - while I place the facts before the
newcomers.
Briefly, then, owing to circumstances I needn't go into,
Madeline Bassett daughter of Sir Watkyn Bassett of Totleigh Towers,
Glos. had long been under the impression that I was hopelessly in
love with her and had given to understand that if ever she had
occasion to return her betrothed, Gussie Fink-Nottle, to store, she
would marry me. Which wouldn't have fitted in with my plans at all,
she though physically in the pin-up class, being as mushy a
character as ever broke biscuit, convinced that the stars are God's
daisy chain and that every time a fairy blows its wee nose a baby
is born. The last thing, as you can well imagine, one would want
about the home.
So when Gussie unexpectedly eloped with the cook, it looked as
though Bertram was for it. If a girl thinks you're in love with her
and says she will marry you, you can't very well voice a preference