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Title:
Service with a Smile
Series: Blandings Castle
#8A
Author: P.G. Wodehouse
Rating: 4
of 5 Stars
Genre: Humor
Pages:
173
Words: 57K
I
believe this was actually supposed to be #8 in the Blandings Castle
series, but Wikipedia let me down and claimed this was an “Uncle
Fred” story, even though it features everyone from Blandings AND
takes place at Blandings Castle. One more proof that Wikipedia is a
hotbed of liberals and communists with a political agenda!
It
has been over a year and a half since I read a PG Wodehouse story and
I found that that break did wonders. I thoroughly enjoyed this
completely recycled novel. There was not ONE original part of a story
in this. Connie yells at her brother the Duke. Young Love is thwarted
and reunited. Pigs are kidnapped, or not. Money changes hands at the
speed of blackmail. Plus some of the usual smaller things. And I
still had a blast.
That
is all I ask of a Wodehouse novel. And that’s all you are getting
for a review.
★★★★☆
From
Wikipedia
Myra
Schoonmaker is staying at Blandings Castle, her London season
having been cut short by Connie. Connie is not happy that Myra
wants to marry the impoverished East End curate Bill
Bailey. Lord Emsworth is not happy with his sister, with
his latest secretary Lavender Briggs and with the houseguest Duke of
Dunstable. Adding to the unpleasantness, Lady Constance invites a
party of Church Lads to camp out at the lake, young boys who enjoy
taunting Emsworth.
When
Connie says she will be away for a day having her hair done
in Shrewsbury, Myra contacts Bailey, arranging to meet in a
registry office and get married. Bailey, with his friend Pongo
Twistleton and Pongo's Uncle Fred, waits at the selected
spot, but Myra does not appear. Uncle Fred is an old friend of Myra
and her father, and he likes Bailey. Fred then meets Emsworth, who is
in London to attend the Opening of Parliament), and invites
himself to Blandings to help Emsworth, the unhappy earl. He brings
Bailey under the name of "Cuthbert Meriweather", an old
friend returned from Brazil.
At
the castle, Bailey and Myra are reunited, after learning each was
waiting at a different registry office. The Church Lads trick
Emsworth into diving into the lake to rescue one of their number,
which turns out to be a log. This leads the Duke of Dunstable to
again question Emsworth's sanity, always manifest in Emsworth’s
affection for his pig. Emsworth, at Fred's suggestion, takes his
revenge on the Church Lads by cutting the ropes of their tent in the
small hours.
Dunstable
plans to steal the pig and sell it to Lord Tilbury for
£2000. Lavender Briggs proposes to do the work of stealing the pig
for £500; Dunstable will not sign a contract, so she insists he make
a clear verbal agreement. Briggs enlists the pig man Wellbeloved to
help and she has a second assistant available. She goes to London to
deposit the cheque.
Myra
tells Uncle Fred that Briggs is blackmailing her beloved
Bailey, as she has recognised him, into helping with the pig scheme.
Before Fred can come up with a plan, Bailey confesses all to Lord
Emsworth, who in his wrath fires both Briggs and Wellbeloved.
Emsworth then relates all of this to his sister, including
Meriweather’s true identity. Connie orders Fred and Bailey out of
the castle; they stay, as Fred threatens to reveal to the county
that Beach cut the tent ropes, which would lead to
embarrassment and the loss of a superlative butler. Upset at her
failure in finding a good match for Myra, Connie cables James
Schoonmaker to come to her aid from his home in New York.
When
George Threepwood tells Dunstable that he has photographed his
grandfather in the act of cutting the tent ropes, Dunstable realises
that Briggs is no longer needed, as he can blackmail Emsworth into
parting with the pig with the photos. He meets up with Tilbury at The
Emsworth Arms, where Lavender Briggs, returned from her day in London
and unaware she has been fired, overhears him telling Tilbury he has
cancelled her cheque; Dunstable raises the price for Tilbury to £3000
for the pig, which Tilbury will consider. After Dunstable leaves,
Briggs approaches Tilbury, her former employer, with her offer to
steal the pig for Tilbury at a lower price; he accepts and pays her.
On leaving the inn, Briggs meets Uncle Fred, who tells her that
Emsworth has fired her; he advises her to head back to London to
deposit Tilbury's cheque. She wants this money to open her own
secretarial service.
Schoonmaker
arrives, answering Connie's request. Fred intercepts him at the
railway station and takes him to the Emsworth Arms, where they catch
up on old times. Fred informs his old friend of Myra's engagement to
Archie Gilpin, which she did after breaking off with Bailey for his
rash confession). Schoonmaker reveals he loves Connie, but lacks the
courage to propose. Fred tells him that she has feelings for him,
encourages Schoonmaker to propose to her. Later Gilpin tells Fred he
has once again become engaged to Millicent Rigby, with whom he had
had a minor falling out, and now finds himself engaged to two girls
at once; he needs £1000, to buy into his cousin Ricky's onion-soup
business and support his future wife. Fred encourages Archie to break
it off with Myra.
Uncle
Fred tricks Dunstable into thinking Schoonmaker is broke, and
persuades him to pay out £1000 to get his nephew Archie out of his
engagement to Myra. Fred persuades him that Bill Bailey is a more
suitable match for Myra. Connie is in tears on hearing Myra is
engaged to Bailey, which gives Schoonmaker the nerve to propose to
Connie. With help from Lavender Briggs, Fred plays for Dunstable
the tape-recording of him scheming to steal the pig. In
return for Fred keeping that quiet, Dunstable turns over the photos
of Lord Emsworth to Fred. Fred keeps the tape so Dunstable will not
stop the cheque to his nephew Archie.
With
Bill and Myra off to a registry office, Archie back with Millicent
and set up in business, Connie and Schoonmaker engaged and Dunstable
well and truly scuppered, Fred smiles at the services he has done for
one and all.
