The Mating Season, chapters 15–17, The Larches, next morning
Bertie hides in a bush at The Larches, waits out a flirting postman, a smoking housemaid, Madeline and her school friend's dog, then grabs Gussie's letter from the breakfast table and, cut off at the window, bolts across the hall into another room.
The text is on its way.
Aside, in the novel Madeline tells the plot of Mervyn Keene, Clubman, whose hero is shot stealing his lost love's rose.
Aside, not long ago Hilda broke off her engagement to Harold Anstruther after he hogged the game in a Mixed Doubles and called her a rabbit.
Aside, at Oxford Beefy Anstruther was Bertie's Rackets partner in his last year at Oxford.
Present: Bertie Wooster, the gardener, Hilda Gudgeon, Jane, Madeline Bassett, the postman, the ginger cat, Percy
Also there: Gussie's letter to Madeline, Hilda's pistol, Madeline's studio portrait, the sofa
Mentioned: Aunt Agatha, Aunt Charlotte, Bingo Little, Catsmeat Potter-Pirbright, Cynthia Grey, Dame Daphne Winkworth, Esmond Haddock, Gussie Fink-Nottle, Harold Anstruther, Jeeves, Lionel, Mervyn Keene, Rosie M. Banks, Sir Hector Mauleverer, Deverill Hall, Harold's letter✦︎, The Larches, Mervyn Keene, Clubman✦︎