Money for nothingWodehouse, P. G. (Pelham Grenville)
General
Money for nothing
Wodehouse, P. G. (Pelham Grenville)
Greed -- Fiction; Humorous stories; Swindlers and swindling -- Fiction
There is an etiquette in these matters on which all right-minded dogs
insist. When people trod on Emily, she expected them immediately to
fuss over her, and the same procedure seemed to her to be in order when
they hit her on the nose with doors. Waiting expectantly, therefore,
for Colonel Wyvern to do the square thing, she was stunned to find that
he apparently had no intention of even apologizing. He was brushing
past without a word, and all the woman in Emily rose in revolt against
such boorishness.
"Just a minute!" she said dangerously. "Just one minute, if you please.
Not so fast, my good man. A word with you, if I may trespass upon your
valuable time."
The Colonel, chafing beneath the weight of his wrongs, perceived that
they had been added to by a beast of a hairy dog that stood and yapped
at him.
"Get out!" he bellowed.
Emily became hysterical.
"Indeed?" she said shrilly. "And who do you think you are, you poor
clumsy Robot? You come hitting ladies on the nose as if you were the
King of England, and as if that wasn't enough...."
"Go away, sir."
"Who the devil are you calling Sir?" Emily had the Twentieth Century
girl's freedom of speech and breadth of vocabulary. "It's people like
you that cause all this modern unrest and industrial strife. I know
your sort well. Robbers and oppressors. And let me tell you another
thing...."
At this point the Colonel very injudiciously aimed a kick at Emily.
It was not much of a kick, and it came nowhere near her, but it
sufficed. Realizing the futility of words, Emily decided on action. And
it was just as she had got a preliminary grip on the Colonel's left
trouser leg that John arrived at the Front.
"Emily!!!" roared John, shocked to the core of his being.
He had excellent lungs, and he used them to the last ounce of their
power. A young man who sees the father of the girl he loves being
swallowed alive by a Welsh terrier does not spare his voice. The
word came out of him like the note of the Last Trump, and Colonel
Wyvern, leaping spasmodically, dropped his bottle of Brophy. It fell
on the pavement and exploded, and Emily, who could do her bit in a
rough-and-tumble but barred bombs, tucked her tail between her legs
and vanished. A faint, sleepy cheering from outside the Carmody Arms
announced that she had passed that home from home and was going well.
John continued to be agitated. You would not have supposed, to look
at Colonel Wyvern, that he could have had an attractive daughter, but
such was the case, and John's manner was as concerned and ingratiating
as that of most young men in the presence of the fathers of attractive
daughters.
"I'm so sorry, Colonel. I do hope you're not hurt, Colonel."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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