Freddie Fitch-Fitch wants to marry Annabel Purvis, so goes to Droitgate to get his uncle and trustee, Major-Gen. Bastable, to release some capital. Bastable refuses when he learns that Annabel is a conjuror's assistant, so Freddie sends Annabel to ingratiate herself with him. But they haven't reckoned on the snake in the grass with a rabbit in his hat, Annabel's former employer and fiancé Mortimer Rackstraw (The Great Boloni), who wants revenge.
| Freddie Fitch-Fitch | a young man |
| Major-General Sir Aylmer Bastable | his uncle and trustee |
| Annabel Purvis | a conjuror's assistant |
| Mortimer Rackstraw | The Great Boloni, a stage conjuror |
| Lord Rumbelow | an illness snob |
| Joe Boffin | Annabel's uncle who enjoys bad health |
First published 20 February 1937 in the Saturday Evening Post (US).
Also published in August 1937 in the Strand magazine.
Gout
- a painful disease causing inflammation of the smaller joints, especially the toes, as a result of excess uric acid in the blood. It is not caused by alcohol.
Spartans and Helots
- the Spartans were the citizens of a city-state in ancient Greece. The helots were their serfs, a type of slave.
Canaille
- rabble or general populace.
'Love conquers all.'
- Virgil, Eclogues, Book 10.
Salicylate pill
- aspirin.
Medulla oblongata
- a part of the brain.
'Ah, well, all flesh is as grass.'
- from 1 Peter: Chapter 1, Verse 24.
'... I foresee the breach of promise of the century.'
'... because his love was like a red, red, rose ...'
- Robert Burns, A Red, Red Rose.
'Poet and Peasant'
- by Franz von Suppé, 1846, the overture is often played as a concert piece.
'Raymond'
- from the opera by Ambrose Thomas, 1851.
'Just as the weariest river winds somewhere safe to sea ...'
- Algernon Swinburne, The Garden of Proserpine.
'I forbid the banns.'
- the banns are a formal notification that a marriage is to take place. Their purpose is to allow anyone who had good legal reasons time to object to the marriage, hence they had to be read out in church on three Sundays running.
Silver Ring bookie
- the Silver Ring is the lowest class of enclosure at race courses. Dress is casual compared to the members or grandstand enclosures which require smart dress, the view of the winning post is likely to be poor and there is no access to the winner's enclosure.
Gêne
- embarrassment, discomfort (French).
'Pomp and Circumstance'
- five marches for orchestra by Edward Elgar (1901-30).