Bertie Wooster, recovering from influenza, is feeling lonely and talks about having his sister's three little girls to stay. Jeeves, who does not wish to give up their bachelor life, suggests a holiday at the seaside instead.
On the road back from Brighton, they meet a young girl and give her a lift to her school. Bertie pretends to be a friend of her father's so she won't get into trouble for being out without permission. Jeeves persuades the school mistress that Bertie is famous and would happily give a talk to the girls. Bertie wants out but Jeeves tells him the car has broken down.
| Bertie Wooster | |
| Jeeves | his valet |
| Peggy Mainwaring | a schoolgirl |
| Miss Tomlinson | a school mistress |
First published August 1922 in the Strand magazine as Bertie Gets His Chance.
Also published August 1922 in Cosmopolitan (US).
Note: one source lists the Cosmopolitan publication as Bertie Gets his Chance but this seems to be an error.
Brighton
- a seaside town in Sussex, on the South coast of England.
'Emerson ... says a friend may well be reckoned the masterpiece of nature, ...'
- Ralph Waldo Emerson, Essays. First series. Friendship.
Sang-froid
- composure or coolness in danger (French cold blood).
Sunbeam and Wolseley
- two car marques with complex histories, both now gone.
'More deadly than the male, sir.'
- Rudyard Kipling, The Female of the Species.
Tonneau
- the part of a car containing the back seats.