Page:Carry On, Jeeves.pdf/36

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II THE ARTISTIC CAREER OF CORKY


OU will notice, as you flit through these reminiscences of mine, that from time to time the scene of action is laid in and around the city of New York; and it is just possible that this may occasion the puzzled look and the start of surprise. “What,” it is possible that you may ask yourselves, “is Bertram doing so far from his beloved native land?”

Well, it’s a fairly longish story; but, reefing it down a bit and turning it for the nonce into a two-reeler, what happened was that my Aunt Agatha on one occasion sent me over to America to try to stop young Gussie, my cousin, marrying a girl on the vaudeville stage, and I got the whole thing so mixed up that I decided it would be a sound scheme to stop on in New York for a bit instead of going back and having long, cosy chats with her about the affair. So, I sent Jeeves out to find a decent flat and settled down for a spell of exile.

I ’m bound to say New York’s a most sprightly place to be exiled in. Everybody was awfully good to me, and there seemed to be plenty of things going on; so, take it for all in all, I didn’t undergo any frightful hardships. Blokes introduced me to other blokes, and so on and so forth, and it wasn’t long before I knew squads of the right sort, some who rolled in the stuff in houses up by the park, and others who lived with the gas turned down mostly around Washington Square—artists and writers and so forth. Brainy coves.

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