Ambrose Wiffin and Algy Crufts fall out over their planned trip to Monte Carlo as Ambrose wants to delay it to be with Roberta Wickham. Meanwhile, Roberta is ordered to cancel her planned shopping trip to escort her cousin and his friend to the moving pictures.
When Ambrose turns up, they all pile off to the Tivoli where Roberta is suddenly no longer among those present and Ambrose's top hat suffers an indignity ...
| Mr Mulliner | the narrator |
| Algy Crufts | a young man |
| Ambrose Wiffin | his friend, enamoured of |
| Bobbie Wickham | a lively young woman |
| Lady Wickham | her mother |
| Wilfred | Roberta's cousin |
| Esmond Bates | his friend |
| a commissionaire | at the Tivoli |
| an elderly lady |
First published July 1928 in the Strand magazine.
Also published August 1928 in Cosmopolitan (US).
'A look such as Sir Galahad might have worn on hearing gossip about Queen Guinevere ...'
- in Arthurian legend, Galahad was the perfect Knight of the Round Table, the epitome of innocence and chivalry. Guinevere embarked on a secret affair with Sir Lancelot which became very public.
Eaton Square
- is in fashionable Belgravia.
Eton suit
- a school uniform that became a general boys' fashion in the early 1900s, with a short jacket and a broad starched collar.
Stacombed hair
- Stacomb was a proprietary hair cream.
Tivoli
- a cinema in the Strand, now demolished.
'... the emotions of the Ten Thousand Greeks beholding the sea ...'
- refers to the retreat of ten thousand Greek mercenaries from Persia, led by Xenophon, who crossed back into Europe across the Bosphorus. One assumes they were much relieved that safety was in sight.
'The sorrow's crown of sorrows ...'
- Alfred, Lord Tennyson, Locksley Hall.
'... the Queen could do no wrong ...'
- a form of the Royal Prerogative which states that the monarch cannot be prosecuted in his/her own country.
Wordsworth's 'We are Seven'
- a poem about a young girl who counts two dead siblings among the seven of her family.
Feet of clay
- flaw or character defect in a person otherwise revered.
Old Bailey
- common name for the Central Criminal Court, a Crown Court serving London where major cases are heard.
Black Hand
- usually thought of as a gang but was really a method of extortion.
'Even the weariest river winds somewhere safe to sea.'
- from Algernon Swinburne's The Garden of Proserpine.
F.O.B.
- Free On Board, a standard term of payment in shipping etc. meaning the seller pays the costs of carriage to the buyer's port (but not insurance or onward carriage). In reality, the buyer pays in the cost of the goods.
Agincourt and Crécy
- two battles in which the British beat the French.