Anselm Mulliner and Myrtle Jellaby wish to marry but he is a poor curate and cannot they cannot tell her uncle Sir Leopold, the millionaire philatelist. Then a piece of luck for Anselm; his godfather leaves him his stamp collection, which is insured for five thousand pounds. Anselm shows it to Sir Leopold hoping to sell it to him, but Sir L. offers a meagre ten pounds, suggesting it was overvalued through a collector's vanity. Later, Myrtle suggests they get a parishioner, a reformed burglar, to steal so they can claim on the insurance. But Anselm objects.
| Mr Mulliner | the narrator |
| Miss Postlethwaite | barmaid at the Angler's Rest |
| Anselm Mulliner | a curate, in love with |
| Myrtle Jellaby | the niece of |
| Sir Leopold Jellaby, O.B.E. | squire of Rising Mattock |
| Joe Beamish | an ex-burglar |
| Rev. Sidney Gooch | vicar of Rising Mattock |
First published 3 July 1937 in the Saturday Evening Post (US).
First published July 1937 in the Strand magazine.
O. B. E.
- Order of the British Empire, an award for public service.
'[She] felt her heart leap within her like that of the poet Wordsworth when beholding a rainbow in the sky.'
- William Wordsworth, The Rainbow.
Old Adam
- the natural tendency of man towards sin, mischief.
('Can a man take fire in his bosom and his clothes not be burned?'
- the attribution to Proverbs: Chapter 6, Verse 27 is correct.)
'... the butcher, the baker, the candlestick maker ...'
- are from the old nursery rhyme Rub-a-dub-dub which exists in many versions.
Encomium
- formal or high-flown praise.
Pentonville, Wormwood Scrubs and Dartmoor
- three English prisons.
'I find myself saying in the words of the prophet Hosea to the children of Abdullam.'
- whatever Hosea said, it wasn't to the children of Abdullam, at least not in the King James version.