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who had been standing by biting her handkerchief and gurgling at intervals while the brother got the above off his chest, now started in once more.
    ‘Mr Wooster,’ she cried, ‘won’t you, won’t you help us? Oh, do say you will! We must have the money to get back the cheque from Colonel Musgrave before nine o’clock - he leaves on the nine-twenty. I was at my wits’ end what to do when I remembered how kind you had always been. Mr Wooster, will you lend Sidney the money and take these as security?’ And before I knew what she was doing she had dived into her bag, produced a case, and opened it. ‘My pearls,’ she said. ‘I don’t know what they are worth - they were a present from my poor father -‘
    ‘Now, alas, no more -‘ chipped in the brother.
    ‘But I know they must be worth ever so much more than the amount we want.’
    Dashed embarrassing. Made me feel like a pawnbroker. More than a touch of popping the watch about the whole business.
    ‘No, I say, really,’ I protested. ‘There’s no need of any security, you know, or any rot of that kind. Only too glad to let you have the money. I’ve got it on me, as a matter of fact. Rather luckily drew some this morning.’
    And I fished it out and pushed it across. The brother shook his head.
    ‘Mr Wooster,’ he said, ‘we appreciate your generosity, your beautiful, heartening confidence in us, but we cannot permit this.’
    ‘What Sidney means,’ said the girl, ‘is that you really don’t know anything about us when you come to think of it. You mustn’t risk lending all this money without any security at all to two people who, after all, are almost strangers. If I hadn’t thought that you would be quite business-like about this I would never have dared to come to you.’
    ‘The idea of - er - pledging the pearls at the local Mont de Piete was, you will readily understand, repugnant to us,’ said the brother.
    ‘If you will just give me a receipt, as a matter of form -‘
    ‘Oh, right-o!’
    I wrote out the receipt and handed it over, feeling more or less of an ass.
    ‘Here you are,’ I said.
    The girl took the piece of paper, shoved it in her bag, grabbed the money and slipped it to brother Sidney, and then, before I knew what was happening, she had darted at me, kissed me, and legged it from the room.
    I’m bound to say the thing rattled me. So dashed sudden and unexpected. I mean, a girl like that. Always been quiet and demure and what not - by no means the sort of female you’d have expected to go about the place kissing fellows. Through a sort of mist I could see that Jeeves had appeared from the background and was helping the brother on with his coat; and I remember wondering idly how the dickens a man could bring himself to wear a coat like that, it being more like a sack than anything else. Then the brother came up to me and grasped my hand.
    ‘I cannot thank you sufficiently, Mr Wooster!’
    ‘Oh, not at all.’
    ‘You have saved my good name. Good name in man or woman, dear my lord,’ he said, massaging the fin with some fervour, ‘is the immediate jewel of their souls. Who steals my purse steals trash. ‘Twas mine, ‘tis his, and has been slave to thousands. But he that filches my good name robs me of that which enriches not him and makes me poor indeed. I thank you from the bottom of my heart. Good night, Mr Wooster.’
    ‘Good night, old thing,’ I said.
    I blinked at Jeeves as the door shut. ‘Rather a sad affair, Jeeves,’ I said.
    ‘Yes, sir.’
    ‘Luckily I happened to have all that money handy.’
    ‘Well - er - yes, sir.’
    ‘You speak as though you didn’t think much of it.’
    ‘It is not my place to criticize your actions, sir, but I will venture to say that I think you behaved a little rashly.’
    ‘What, lending that money?’
    ‘Yes, sir. These fashionable French watering places are notoriously infested by dishonest characters.’
    This was a bit too thick.
    ‘Now look here, Jeeves,’ I said.