Rutherford Maxwell, an Englishman in New York courtesy of his employers, the New Asiatic Bank, is trying to write stories for magazines. Into his life comes Peggy Norton, a fellow resident of the Alcala apartments and a real live wire. Gradually, he shifts his affections from his girl in England to Peggy. Then the show she is in moves to Chicago, taking her with it ...
| Rutherford Maxwell | a would-be writer |
| Peggy Norton | a stage performer |
| Gladys | her friend |
| Winfield Knight | an actor |
First published December 1911 in the London Magazine.
Rutherford Maxwell
- Rutherford and Maxwell were two famous British physicists.
New Asiatic Bank
- Wodehouse's standard fictitious bank that appears in many stories and which was based on the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank for which he worked between 1900 and 1902.
'Like Banquo's ghost, she had no speculation in her eyes.'
- Shakespeare, Macbeth, Act 3, Scene 4.
Coney
- Coney Island, a group of amusement parks at the south-west corner of Long Island.
Rube joint
- a place occupied by rubes, country bumpkins, hicks etc.
John D
- Rockefeller, almost synonymous with wealth.
Billiken
- a made up god of good luck, purchased as a figurine and all the rage in the early 1910s. It was 'The God of Luckiness' or 'The God of Things as They Ought To Be'. It, or at least its likeness, is now a registered trademark of St. Louis University and is their mascot.
Catskills
- a low mountain range in New York state north-west of NY City.
Indian summer
- a period of unusually dry warm weather in late autumn.
Depression vanishes before the cheerfulness of the great white way
- the Great White Way was that part of Broadway in the then theatre district that was brightly lit at night (Broadway as a whole is a very long road).
Herald Square
- the name given to the corner of Broadway and 6th Avenue.
Madison
- could be the Madison Square Garden Theatre.
Rector's
- a restaurant, the first music user licensed by ASCAP (The American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers) in October 1914.
Noblesse oblige
- implicit obligation of those of higher rank or status to behave graciously toward those below them.
Sargent
- John Singer Sargent (1856-1935), a famous portrait painter, it is said that his best portraits captured the subject's personality.
Players Club
- a club founded in 1888 by Edwin Booth, with General Sherman and Mark Twain among others. It is located at 16 Grammercy Park.