Free Money in the Bank by P. G. Wodehouse Page A

and nothing but Cakebread. Jeff modified the exuberance of his demeanour, infusing into it something of the other's formality.
    "Is Mrs. Cork at home?"
    "Yes, sir. What name shall I say?"
    "Mr. Adair."
    "If you will step this way, sir."
    With the same reserved aloofness, in a silence broken only by the sound of his boots, which squeaked, Lord Uffenham conducted the young visitor along a passage, coming to a halt outside a door through which, as he opened it, there proceeded a strong and resonant voice saying something derogatory about rogue elephants. A moment later, Jeff found himself in the presence.
    His first emotions on beholding Mrs. Wellesley Cork were rather similar to those experienced by the numerous elks and wapiti which had encountered her in their time. Like them, he felt startled and a little nervous. Mrs. Cork, even when not armed to the teeth, was always a somewhat awe-inspiring spectacle, when seen for the first time in the flesh. She was a large, powerful woman in the middle forties—handsome, if you admired the robuster type of beauty, less attractive if your taste lay in the direction of the more essentially feminine. A series of African summers had tanned her features to the consistency of leather, causing her to look like an older Myrtle Shoesmith who had been sitting out in the sun.
    At the desk, Anne Benedick was seated with a notebook on her knee. She appeared to have been taking dictation.
    "Yes, Cakebread?"
    "Mr. Adair, madam."
    "Oh? Come in, Mr. Adair. How do you do? That will be all for to-day, Miss Benedick."
    Anne, during these exchanges, had been eyeing Jeff with covert interest. It always interests a girl to reexamine a man, who, so she has been assured since her last meeting with him, has fallen in love with her at first sight. She found herself feeling kindly and well-disposed towards him. She liked people to like her—or, if they preferred it, to love her.
    Furthermore, courage in the male was a quality she particularly admired, and there was no question but that this pseudo-Adair, in insinuating himself into the Cork home under false pretences, was displaying heroism of a high order. Most of the young men of her acquaintance, given the choice between indulging in practical pleasantries at Mrs. Wellesley Cork's expense and stirring up a nest of hornets with a short stick, would have chosen the hornets without hesitation.
    Less rigid than her uncle in her views on unbending to old acquaintances, she smiled dazzlingly at him, as she passed from the room, causing him to feel greatly strengthened. After a smile like that, he was able to regard Mrs. Cork as a mere bagatelle, to be taken in his stride.
    That dynamic woman was subjecting him to a keen scrutiny.
    "Sit down, Mr. Adair. You are very young," she said, finding a flaw in his make-up in the first minute. "I had not expected that you would be so young."
    Jeff apologised for being young, considered saying that his father had been the same at his age, thought better of it. Something about his hostess told him that she might not appreciate buzzing.
    "Still, you have had plenty of experience?"
    "Oh, lots."
    "Good. I suppose Miss Benedick explained my reasons for wanting you here?"
    “Fully." '
    "That was Cakebread who showed you in."
    "So I deduced."
    "Keep an eye on him."
    "I will."
    "The man's either a lunatic or a thief, and I want to know which, when I make the strong protest to Lord Uffenham which I intend to make. The idea of putting a clause like that in the lease."
    "Unusual."
    "I cannot understand why Miss Benedick did not draw my attention to it. By the way, what was your impression of Miss Benedick?"
    The theme was one on which Jeff could have become lyrical. Rightly divining, however, that his companion would not desire any poetic rhapsodies, he confined himself to the reply that Anne, in his opinion, had seemed very charming.
    "The way she wiggles the tip of her nose," he said, allowing himself a moment's licence. "Most