P. G. Wodehouse

The mating season

Gavin

“Still,” I said, feeling that it was worth trying, “it’s part of the great web, what?” 

“Great web?” 

“One of Marcus Aurelius’s cracks. He said: Does aught befall you? It is good. It is part of the destiny of 
the Universe ordained for you from the beginning. All that befalls you is part of the great web. ” 

From the brusque manner in which he damned and blasted Marcus Aurelius, I gathered that, just as had happened when Jeeves sprang it on me, the gag had failed to bring balm. I hadn't had much hope that it would. I doubt, as a matter of fact, if Marcus Aurelius’s material is ever the stuff to give the troops at a moment when they have just stubbed their toe on the brick of Fate. You want to wait till the agony has abated. 



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Classification:

Wooster's taboo: None; using a port decanter as a conductor's baton while standing on a chair bellowing hunting doggerel.
Triangle: Wooster - the Bassett - Gussie - Corky - Esmond - Gertrude - Catsmeat - Queenie - Dobbs.*
Subplot: Arresting a dog, kidnapping, converting an atheist.
Aunt: Agatha and five others
Antagonist: Dame Daphne Winkworth, the Bassett, Agatha
Expedient: treble impersonation, comedic Irish crosstalk, luring a schoolboy with a starlet, coshing a cop to convert him to Christianity.




* It is vital to have an odd number of people in the love 'triangle', so that they can all be paired off at the end, sparing Wooster.

The mating season

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