author and a friend go into a riverside inn and see a very large trout
in a glass case. They make inquiries about it, have men assure them,
one by one, that the trout was caught by themselves. In the end the
trout turns out to be made of plaster of Paris.

Mr Bickersdyke told that story as an experience of his own while
fishing one summer in the Lake District.

It went well. The meeting was amused. Mr Bickersdyke went on to draw a
trenchant comparison between the lack of genuine merit in the trout and
the lack of genuine merit in the achievements of His Majesty's
Government.

There was applause.

When it had ceased, Psmith rose to his feet again.

'Excuse me,' he said.




11. Misunderstood


Mike had refused to accompany Psmith to the meeting that evening,
saying that he got too many chances in the ordinary way of business of
hearing Mr Bickersdyke speak, without going out of his way to make
more. So Psmith had gone off to Kenningford alone, and Mike, feeling
too lazy to sally out to any place of entertainment, had remained at