Дживс, вы – гений! / Thank you, Jeeves!

“But there’s a corpse on the floor.”

“There isn’t.”

“There is, I tell you. I was looking about for the candle, and my fingers touched something cold and still and wet.”

“Oh, that’s my swimming suit.”

“Your swimming suit?”

“Well, do you think I came ashore by aeroplane?”

“You swam here from the yacht?”

“Yes.”

“When?”

“About half an hour ago.”

“Why?” I asked.

“You know, Bertie, steps should be taken about you.”

“Eh?”

“You ought to be in some sort of a home.”

“I am,” I replied coldly and rather cleverly. “My own. But what are you doing in it?”

She did not answer.

“Why did you want to kiss me in front of father? I can quite understand now why Sir Roderick told father that you ought to be under restraint.”

“The incident to which you allude is readily explained. I thought he was Chuffy.”

“Thought who was Chuffy?”

“Your father.”

“I don’t see what you mean,” she replied coldly.

I explained.

“The idea was to let Chuffy observe you in my embrace. To force him act speedily.”

“That was very sweet of you.”

“We Woosters are sweet, exceedingly sweet, when a pal’s happiness is spoken about.”

“I can see now why I accepted you that night in New York,” she said meditatively. “If I wasn’t so crazy about Marmaduke, I could easily marry you, Bertie.”

“No, no,” I said, with some alarm. “Don’t dream of it. I mean to say—”

“Oh, it’s all right. I’m not going to. I’m going to marry Marmaduke; that’s why I’m here.”

“And now,” I said, “we’ve come right back to it. You say you swam ashore from the yacht? Why? You came here. Why?”

“Because I wanted somewhere to go till I could get clothes, of course. I can’t go to the Hall in a swimming suit.”

“Oh, you swam ashore to get to Chuffy?”

“Of course. Father was keeping me a prisoner on board the yacht, and this evening Jeeves arrived with an early letter from Marmaduke. Oh! I cried six pints when I read it. It was beautiful. It throbbed with poetry.”

“It did?”

“Yes.”

“This letter?”

“Yes.”

“Chuffy’s letter?”

“Yes. You seem surprised.”

I was a bit.

“I felt I couldn’t wait another day without seeing him,” she continued. “And, talking of Jeeves, what a man!”

“Oh, you confided in Jeeves?[59 - you confided in Jeeves? – ты всё рассказала Дживсу?]“

“Yes. And told him what I was going to do.”

“And he didn’t try to stop you?”

“Stop me? He was all for it.”

“He was, was he?”

“You should have seen him. Such a kind smile. He said you would be delighted to help me.”

“He did, eh?”

“He spoke most highly of you.”

“Really?”

“Oh, yes, he thinks a lot of you. I remember his very words. ‘Mr Wooster, miss,’ he said, ‘is, perhaps, mentally somewhat negligible[60 - mentally somewhat negligible – не семи пядей во лбу], but he has a heart of gold.’ He was lowering me from the side of the boat by a rope.”