"Пэлем Грэнвил Вудхауз. Much obliged, Jeeves (Премного обязан, Дживс; англ.)" - читать интересную книгу автора

She spoke her mind freely enough some years ago when - against my
personal wishes - I was found with twenty-three cats in my bedroom
and again when I was accused - unjustly, I need hardly say - of
having marooned A. B. Filmer, the Cabinet minister, on an island in
her lake. To what heights of eloquence would she not soar, if
informed of my vicissitudes at Totleigh Towers? The imagination
boggles, Jeeves, I tell him.
To which he replies that it won't fall into the hands of my
Aunt Agatha, she not being likely to drop in at the Junior
Ganymede, which is what his club is called, and there the matter
rests. His reasoning is specious and he has more or less succeeded
in soothing my tremors, but I still can't help feeling uneasy, and
my manner, as I addressed him now, had quite a bit of agitation in
it.
'Good Lord!' I ejaculated, if ejaculated is the word I want.
'Are you really writing up that Totleigh business?'
'Yes, sir.'
'All the stuff about my being supposed to have pinched old
Bassett's amber statuette?'
'Yes, sir.'
'And the night I spent in a prison cell? Is this necessary? Why
not let the dead past bury its dead? Why not forget all about it?'
'Impossible, sir.'
'Why impossible? Don't tell me you can't forget things. You
aren't an elephant.'
I thought I had him there, but no.
'It is my membership in the Junior Ganymede which restrains me
from obliging you, sir. The rules with reference to the club book
are very strict and the penalty for omitting to contribute to it
severe. Actual expulsion has sometimes resulted.'
'I see,' I said. I could appreciate that this put him in quite
a spot, the feudal spirit making him wish to do the square thing by
the young master, while a natural disinclination to get bunged out
of a well-loved club urged him to let the young master boil his
head. The situation seemed to me to call for what is known as a
compromise.
'Well, couldn't you water the thing down a bit? Omit one or two
of the juiciest episodes?'
'I fear not, sir. The full facts are required. The committee
insists on this.'
I suppose I ought not at this point to have expressed a hope
that his blasted committee would trip over banana skins and break
their ruddy necks, for I seemed to detect on his face a momentary
look of pain. But he was broadminded and condoned it.
'Your chagrin does not surprise me, sir. One can, however,
understand their point of view. The Junior Ganymede club book is a
historic document. It has been in existence more than eighty
years.'
'It must be the size of a house.'
'No, sir, the records are in several volumes. The present one