home against Jerome. Well, after a bit, I was amazed, and pained, too,
to hear Comrade Bickersdyke urging certain bravoes in the audience to
turn me out. If ever there was a case of biting the hand that fed
him.... Well, well.... By this time the meeting had begun to take sides
to some extent. What I might call my party, the Earnest Investigators,
were whistling between their fingers, stamping on the floor, and
shouting, "Chestnuts!" while the opposing party, the bravoes, seemed to
be trying, as I say, to do jiu-jitsu tricks with me. It was a painful
situation. I know the cultivated man of affairs should have passed the
thing off with a short, careless laugh; but, owing to the
above-mentioned alcohol-expert having got both hands under my collar,
short, careless laughs were off. I was compelled, very reluctantly, to
conclude the interview by tapping the bright boy on the jaw. He took
the hint, and sat down on the floor. I thought no more of the matter,
and was making my way thoughtfully to the exit, when a second man of
wrath put the above on my forehead. You can't ignore a thing like that.
I collected some of his waistcoat and one of his legs, and hove him
with some vim into the middle distance. By this time a good many of the
Earnest Investigators were beginning to join in; and it was just there
that the affair began to have certain points of resemblance to a
pantomime rally. Everybody seemed to be shouting a good deal and
hitting everybody else. It was no place for a man of delicate culture,
so I edged towards the door, and drifted out. There was a cab in the
offing. I boarded it. And, having kicked a vigorous politician in the
stomach, as he was endeavouring to climb in too, I drove off home.'

Psmith got up, looked at his forehead once more in the glass, sighed,
and sat down again.

'All very disturbing,' he said.