Free Summer Moonshine by P. G. Wodehouse

through buttercups and daisies and the meadowsweet that lay in their path like snow to a small spinney fragrant with the warm scent of ferns and blackberries.
    'I say,' said Adrian, who had been wrapped in thought, 'are there mice on that boat?'
    Jane was gallant, but she could not fight against this. Depression had its way with her.
    'I don't know. Why? Would you like some?'
    'I thought I heard a scratching noise.'
    'Probably just rats.'
    'Rats!'
    'Water rats. I believe they use the Mignonette as a sort of club.'
    Adrian turned and subjected the Mignonette to an anxious scrutiny. His sensitive features were a little twisted, and his wistful eyes sadder than ever. He was telling himself that he might have expected this sort of thing from that raffish, out-at-elbows pleasure craft.
    'Rats?' he said thoughtfully. 'I wonder if any of them have died on board.'
    'Do you want to send a wreath?'
    'I noticed a smell in the saloon.'
    'What sort of smell?'
    'A funny smell.'
    'Well, we all like a good laugh, don't we?'
    'I believe those sheets are damp.'
    'They're not.'
    'They felt damp. And the bunk's very hard.'
    Jane's hair was not red, but she had a red-haired girl's quick temper.
    'The Mignonette isn't the Princess Dwornitzchek's yacht.'
    Adrian stared.
    'Eh?'
    'I hear that's one of your favourite haunts.'
    'Who told you that?'
    'Her stepson. Tubby. He's staying at the Hall.'
    'What?'
    'Didn't she tell you?'
    'She did say he was staying down in the country somewhere, but I wasn't paying much attention.'
    'Odd. I thought you hung on her lips, eager to catch her lightest word.'
    Jane gave a little shiver of shame. Before her eyes there had risen a vision of Joe Vanringham, looking at her with an eyebrow cocked and a mocking smile on his lips. A remark like that was just the sort of remark which would have excited his derision. And though she had blotted out Joe Vanringham from her life for ever, she did not like to see visions of him grinning at her. It is not pleasant for a girl to be grinned at by wraiths from the underworld.
    Her words excited in Adrian Peake, not derision but concern. He became plaintive:
    'Jane, darling! What's the matter?'
    'Oh, nothing.'
    'But there is. You're funny.'
    'Like the smell in the saloon.'
    'Jane, my sweet, what is it? Do tell me.'
    All the brightness had gone out of Jane's afternoon. Long after she had supposed its venom impotent, that poisoned dart of Tubby's had stabbed again, like a dying snake taking a last bite.
    'Oh, it's nothing. Just an idiotic thing Tubby said to me.'
    'What?'
    'Oh, nothing. He was just drivelling. Are you very fond of the Princess?'
    'Not so very.'
    'Then why do you spend weeks on her yacht?'
    'Oh, well. She invited me.'
    'Her invitations aren't royal commands, are they?'
    'No, no, of course not. But I couldn't very well get out of it. These rich women so easily take offence. One has to be diplomatic.'
    'Oh, Adrian!'
    'I didn't want to hurt her feelings. She's a well-meaning old thing.'
    'Not so very old. And not so very well-meaning. And I shouldn't think you could hurt her feelings with an axe.'
    'Jane, darling, what's all this about?'
    Jane melted. Her little gusts of temper were always like summer storms that quickly blow themselves out and leave the sky blue again. She perceived that she had been allowing her baser nature to come to the surface.
    'I'm sorry,' she said. 'We're having what's technically known as a lovers' tiff, aren't we? It's my fault. I'm being a pig. I don't know why I'm talking like this. Original sin, or something, I expect. But it's your fault, too, really, my poppet. You're spoiling all the fun. It's a bit hard on a woman when she comes wailing for her demon lover, and finds that all he can talk about is mice and smells and damp sheets. Why not tell me you're glad to see me again?'
    'But of course I am.'
    'And it doesn't matter if the Mignonette is a bit uncomfortable? Can't you put up with a little discomfort for the sake of being near