excite remark.

'By kindness,' said Psmith to Mike, after one of these expeditions. 'By
tact and kindness. That is how it is done. I do not despair of training
Comrade Rossiter one of these days to jump through paper hoops.'

So that, altogether, Mike's life in the bank had become very fairly
pleasant.

Out of office-hours he enjoyed himself hugely. London was strange to
him, and with Psmith as a companion, he extracted a vast deal of
entertainment from it. Psmith was not unacquainted with the West End,
and he proved an excellent guide. At first Mike expostulated with
unfailing regularity at the other's habit of paying for everything, but
Psmith waved aside all objections with languid firmness.

'I need you, Comrade Jackson,' he said, when Mike lodged a protest on
finding himself bound for the stalls for the second night in
succession. 'We must stick together. As my confidential secretary and
adviser, your place is by my side. Who knows but that between the acts
tonight I may not be seized with some luminous thought? Could I utter
this to my next-door neighbour or the programme-girl? Stand by me,
Comrade Jackson, or we are undone.'

So Mike stood by him.

By this time Mike had grown so used to his work that he could tell to
within five minutes when a rush would come; and he was able to spend a
good deal of his time reading a surreptitious novel behind a pile of
ledgers, or down in the tea-room. The New Asiatic Bank supplied tea to