New York. Bruce 'Corky' Corcoran, an unsuccessful portrait painter, seeks Bertie's help in breaking the news of his engagement to his uncle, Alexander Worple, knowing that he will automatically cut up rough and probably withhold the vital funds.
Jeeves advises Corky's fiancée, chorus girl Muriel Singer, to write a book about American birds for children eulogizing Mr Worple's book American Birds. But will Corky get the girl or the bird?
| Bertie Wooster | |
| Jeeves | his valet |
| Corky Corcoran | a painter |
| Muriel Singer | his fiancée |
| Alexander Worple | his uncle |
First published 5 February 1916 in the Saturday Evening Post and in the Strand magazine June 1916 under the title Leave it to Jeeves.
'Well, it's a fairly longish story, but, reefing it down a bit ...'
- a sailing metaphor, to reef a sail is to reduce its surface, to shorten it.
Bond Street
- [Leave it to Jeeves only] a street in Mayfair noted for its up-market shops.
Lincolnshire
- [Leave it to Jeeves only] also known as the Lincoln Handicap, raced over 1 mile at Doncaster in early March/April. First run in 1858 but moved to Doncaster in 1965 when the Lincoln racecourse closed. I cannot find either Wonderchild or Banana Fritter.
'... up by the Park ...'
- by Central Park so a desirable and hence expensive location. Many years later Wodehouse would live up by the Park.
Washington Square
- in Greenwich Village, Manhattan. Wodehouse used the Hotel Earle there as his NY base from 1909 - 13.
Jute
- a plant fibre that was used for making rope and twine, and woven into sacks and matting.
'... he would raise Cain automatically.'
- raising Cain means to cause trouble, create a disturbance or uproar.
'I've got a cousin who's what they call a Theosophist ...'
- a Theosophist is an adherent of any of the various philosophies professing to achieve a knowledge of God by spiritual ecstasy, direct intuition, or special individual relations, especially a modern movement following Hindu and Buddhist teachings and seeking universal brotherhood. PG's brother Armine was a leading Theosophist in India.
Manhattan
- several theatres and music-halls have had this name, but none was open at the time this story was published. (I cannot find a trace of Choose Your Exit or anything similar that PG might have parodied at this time.)
Purple finch-linnet
- probably the distinctive bird now called a Purple Finch.
Yellow-billed Cuckoo
- a bird with this name can be found around New York, along with the Purple Finch. PG might have seen them both in the feather, so to speak.
'... the milk of human kindness ...'
- from Shakespeare's Macbeth, Act 1, Scene 5.
'... now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of the party.'
- a typing drill.
Cracker-jack
- exceptionally fine thing.
Miss-in-baulk
- a term from billiards indicating a penalty without loss of turn.
'... time, instead of working the healing wheeze, went and pulled the most awful bone and put the lid on it.'
- to 'pull a bone' is to make a silly mistake and 'put the lid on it' is to end something completely with the implication of frustration or annoyance.
Sargent
- John Singer Sargent (1856-1935), a famous portrait painter, it is said that his best portraits captured the subject's personality.
Quod
- gaol (jail) (British slang).
Park Row
- formerly New York's newspaper street in the financial district.
'... Shakespeare and those poet Johnnies ...'
- did not write the old sayings that follow.
Leave it to Jeeves has a page or so introducing Jeeves and Wooster's relationship but is then the same. This was only the second story featuring them published so the characters were still new to the public. By the time the UK book came out in 1925, the introduction was not needed and was pruned.