Psmith in the City by P. G. Wodehouse (world of reading txt) ๐
Description
Mike Jackson is a rising cricket star who finds his dreams of studying and playing at Cambridge upset by news of his fatherโs financial troubles. He takes a job with the New Asiatic Bank in London. He arrives to find that his dapper and verbose young friend Psmith is also a new employee, and together they navigate early twentieth century office life, make the best of their position and squeeze in a little cricket from time to time.
Sir Pelham Grenville Wodehouse was an English author and one of the most widely read humorists of the twentieth century. After leaving school, he was employed by a bank but disliked the work and turned to writing in his spare time. His early novels were mostly school stories, but he later switched to comic fiction, creating several regular characters who became familiar to the public over the years.
Psmith in the City was originally serialized in The Captain magazine in 1908 and 1909 as The New Fold and is the sequel to Mike, an earlier novel by Wodehouse.
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- Author: P. G. Wodehouse
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The days passed slowly, and the cricket season began. Instead of being a relief, this made matters worse. The little cricket he could get only made him want more. It was as if a starving man had been given a handful of wafer biscuits.
If the summer had been wet, he might have been less restless. But, as it happened, it was unusually fine. After a week of cold weather at the beginning of May, a hot spell set in. May passed in a blaze of sunshine. Large scores were made all over the country.
Mikeโs name had been down for the M.C.C. for some years, and he had become a member during his last season at Wrykyn. Once or twice a week he managed to get up to Lordโs for half an hourโs practice at the nets; and on Saturdays the bank had matches, in which he generally managed to knock the cover off rather ordinary club bowling. But it was not enough for him.
June came, and with it more sunshine. The atmosphere of the bank seemed more oppressive than ever.
XXV At the TelephoneIf one looks closely into those actions which are apparently due to sudden impulse, one generally finds that the sudden impulse was merely the last of a long series of events which led up to the action. Alone, it would not have been powerful enough to effect anything. But, coming after the way has been paved for it, it is irresistible. The hooligan who bonnets a policeman is apparently the victim of a sudden impulse. In reality, however, the bonneting is due to weeks of daily encounters with the constable, at each of which meetings the dislike for his helmet and the idea of smashing it in grow a little larger, till finally they blossom into the deed itself.
This was what happened in Mikeโs case. Day by day, through the summer, as the City grew hotter and stuffier, his hatred of the bank became more and more the thought that occupied his mind. It only needed a moderately strong temptation to make him break out and take the consequences.
Psmith noticed his restlessness and endeavoured to soothe it.
โAll is not well,โ he said, โwith Comrade Jackson, the Sunshine of the Home. I note a certain wanness of the cheek. The peach-bloom of your complexion is no longer up to sample. Your eye is wild; your merry laugh no longer rings through the bank, causing nervous customers to leap into the air with startled exclamations. You have the manner of one whose only friend on earth is a yellow dog, and who has lost the dog. Why is this, Comrade Jackson?โ
They were talking in the flat at Clementโs Inn. The night was hot. Through the open windows the roar of the Strand sounded faintly. Mike walked to the window and looked out.
โIโm sick of all this rot,โ he said shortly.
Psmith shot an inquiring glance at him, but said nothing. This restlessness of Mikeโs was causing him a good deal of inconvenience, which he bore in patient silence, hoping for better times. With Mike obviously discontented and out of tune with all the world, there was but little amusement to be extracted from the evenings now. Mike did his best to be cheerful, but he could not shake off the caged feeling which made him restless.
โWhat rot it all is!โ went on Mike, sitting down again. โWhatโs the good of it all? You go and sweat all day at a desk, day after day, for about twopence a year. And when youโre about eighty-five, you retire. It isnโt living at all. Itโs simply being a bally vegetable.โ
โYou arenโt hankering, by any chance, to be a pirate of the Spanish main, or anything like that, are you?โ inquired Psmith.
โAnd all this rot about going out East,โ continued Mike. โWhatโs the good of going out East?โ
โI gather from casual chitchat in the office that one becomes something of a blood when one goes out East,โ said Psmith. โHave a dozen native clerks under you, all looking up to you as the Last Word in magnificence, and end by marrying the Governorโs daughter.โ
โEnd by getting some foul sort of fever, more likely, and being booted out as no further use to the bank.โ
โYou look on the gloomy side, Comrade Jackson. I seem to see you sitting in an armchair, fanned by devoted coolies, telling some Eastern potentate that you can give him five minutes. I understand that being in a bank in the Far East is one of the worldโs softest jobs. Millions of natives hang on your lightest word. Enthusiastic rajahs draw you aside and press jewels into your hand as a token of respect and esteem. When on an elephantโs back you pass, somebody beats on a booming brass gong! The Banker of Bhong! Isnโt your generous young heart stirred to any extent by the prospect? I am given to understandโ โโ
โIโve a jolly good mind to chuck up the whole thing and become a pro. Iโve got a birth qualification for Surrey. Itโs about the only thing I could do any good at.โ
Psmithโs manner became fatherly.
โYouโre all right,โ he said. โThe hot weather has given you that tired feeling. What you want is a change of air. We will pop down together hand in hand this weekend to some seaside resort. You shall build sand castles, while I lie on the beach and read the paper. In the evening we will listen to the band, or stroll on the esplanade, not so much because we want to, as to give the natives a treat. Possibly, if the weather continues warm, we may even paddle. A vastly exhilarating pastime, I am led to believe, and so
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