Elizabeth Yeardsley lures Reggie Pepper to the family home in Hampshire. He fears that Elizabeth, an old flame now married, will try and marry him off to some girl. The truth is no less awful. Her husband's nerves are shattered by the daily sight of the Yeardsley 'Venus' - a poor painting by his father given to them on their wedding. Elizabeth asks Reggie to steal it for them ...
| Reggie Pepper | a young man |
| Bill Yeardsley | his friend |
| Elizabeth Yeardsley | Bill's sister (née Schoolbred) |
| Clarence Yeardsley | her husband |
| Matthew Yeardsley | her father |
First published May 1913 in the Strand magazine.
Probably also published April 1914 in Pictorial Review (US) as Rallying Round Clarence.
St. Andrews
- a golf club in Fife, Scotland, the home of golf.
'I promised to play against the Scottish.'
- probably the London Scottish, a rugby football club based in London (i.e. not the Scottish national team).
'The sort of thing Lady Macbeth might have said to Macbeth ...'
- presumably when he returned after killing King Duncan.
Bombardier Wells
- (1889-1967) Billy Wells, a boxer who held the British heavyweight title.
Romney
- George Romney (1734-1802), English painter.
'... you'd have thought she would have preferred to let the dead past bury its dead, ...'
- from Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's, A Psalm of Life.
Miss-in-baulk
- a term from billiards indicating a penalty without loss of turn. Even on a half-size table.
'To-morrow'll be the maddest, merriest day of Clarence's glad New Year.'
- Alfred, Lord Tennyson, The May Queen.
Milk-train
- very early morning trains that picked up milk from farmers. They stopped at a lot of rural stations making slow progress.