A GENTLEMAN OF LEISURE
P. G. WODEHOUSE
First published by Herbert Jenkins Ltd 1921
Copyright 1921 by P. G. Wodehouse
All rights reserved
CONTENTS
[CHAPTER] PAGE [I. JIMMY MAKES A BET] 7 [II. THE NEW PYRAMUS AND THISBE] 15 [III. MR. McEACHERN] 21 [IV. MOLLY] 26 [V. A THIEF IN THE NIGHT] 30 [VI. AN EXHIBITION PERFORMANCE] 36 [VII. GETTING ACQUAINTED] 42 [VIII. AT DREEVER] 48 [IX. A NEW FRIEND AND AN OLD ONE] 53 [X. JIMMY ADOPTS A LAME DOG] 60 [XI. AT THE TURN OF THE ROAD] 65 [XII. MAKING A START] 74 [XIII. SPIKE’S VIEWS] 82 [XIV. CHECK, AND A COUNTER MOVE] 87 [XV. MR. McEACHERN INTERVENES] 95 [XVI. A MARRIAGE HAS BEEN ARRANGED] 101 [XVII. JIMMY REMEMBERS SOMETHING, AND HEARS SOMETHING ELSE] 110 [XVIII. THE LOCHINVAR METHOD] 118 [XIX. ON THE LAKE] 124 [XX. A LESSON IN PIQUET] 131 [XXI. LOATHSOME GIFTS] 138 [XXII. HOW TWO OF A TRADE DID NOT AGREE] 141 [XXIII. FAMILY JARS] 147 [XXIV. THE TREASURE-SEEKER] 157 [XXV. EXPLANATIONS AND AN INTERRUPTION] 164 [XXVI. STIRRING TIMES FOR SIR THOMAS] 171 [XXVII. A DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE] 176 [XXVIII. SPENNIE’S HOUR OF CLEAR VISION] 185 [XXIX. THE LAST ROUND] 190 [XXX. CONCLUSION] 198
TO
DOUGLAS FAIRBANKS
WHO
MANY YEARS AGO
PLAYED
“JIMMY”
IN THE DRAMATIZED VERSION
OF THIS NOVEL
★ 1 ★
Jimmy Makes a Bet
The main smoking-room of the Strollers’ Club had been filling for the last half-hour, and was now nearly full. In many ways the Strollers’, though not the most magnificent, is the pleasantest club in New York. Its ideals are those of the Savage Club—comfort without pomp—and it is given over after eleven o’clock at night mainly to the Stage. Everybody is young, clean-shaven, and full of conversation—and the conversation strikes a purely professional note.
Everybody in the room on this July night had come from the theatre. Most of those present had been acting, but a certain number had been to the opening performance of the latest better-than-“Raffles” play. There had been something of a boom that season in dramas whose heroes appealed to the public more pleasantly across the footlights than they might have done in real life. In the play which had opened tonight Arthur Mifflin, an exemplary young man off the stage, had been warmly applauded for a series of actions which, performed anywhere except in the theatre, would certainly have debarred him from remaining a member of the Strollers’ or any other club. In faultless evening dress, with a debonair smile on his face, he had broken open a safe, stolen bonds and jewellery to a large amount, and escaped without a blush of shame via the window. He had foiled a detective through four acts and held up a band of pursuers with a revolver. A large audience had intimated complete approval throughout.