I asked [Jeeves] if he had had a good time at Brinkley.

‘Extremely pleasant, thank you, sir.’

‘More than I had in your absence. I felt like a child of tender years deprived of its Nannie. If you don’t mind me calling you a nannie.’

‘Not at all, sir.’

‘[…]Yes, I missed you sorely, and had no heart for whooping it up with the lads at the Drones. From sport to sport they…how does that gag go?’

‘Sir?’

‘I heard you pull it once with reference to Freddie Widgeon, when one of his girls had given him the bird. Something about hurrying.’

‘Ah yes, sir. “From sport to sport they hurry me, to stifle my regret—”’

‘“And when they win a smile from me, they think that I forget.” That was it.’