The Girl on the Boat - Penn State University

“What do you mean, be very careful?” said Mr.
Bennett.
“I’m dashed if I know,” said Sam frankly. <strong>The</strong> question
struck him as a mean attack. He wondered how
Widgery would have met it. Probably by smiling quietly
and polishing his spectacles. Sam had no spectacles.
He endeavoured, however, to smile quietly.
“Don’t laugh at me!” roared Mr. Bennett.
“I’m not laughing at you.”
“You are!”
“I’m not! I’m smiling quietly.”
“Well, don’t then!” said Mr. Bennett. He glowered at his
young companion. “I don’t know why I’m wasting my
time, talking to you. <strong>The</strong> position is clear to the meanest
intelligence. I have no objection to you personally ….”
“Come, this is better!” said Sam.
“I don’t know you well enough to have any objection
to you or any opinion of you at all. This is only the
second time I have ever met you in my life.”
“Mark you,” said Sam, “I think I am one of those
fellows who grow on people ….”
P. G. Wodehouse
147
“As far as I am concerned, you simply do not exist.
You may be the noblest character in London or you
may be wanted by the police. I don’t know. And I don’t
care. It doesn’t matter to me. You mean nothing in my
life. I don’t know you.”
“You must persevere,” said Sam. “You must buckle
to and get to know me. Don’t give the thing up in this
half-hearted way. Everything has to have a beginning.
Stick to it, and in a week or two you will find yourself
knowing me quite well.”
“I don’t want to know you!”
“You say that now, but wait!”
“And thank goodness I have not got to!” exploded
Mr. Bennett, ceasing to be calm and reasonable with a
suddenness which affected Sam much as though half a
pound of gunpowder had been touched off under his
chair. “For the little I have seen of you has been quite
enough! Kindly understand that my daughter is engaged
to be married to another man, and that I do not
wish to see or hear anything of you again! I shall try to
forget your very existence, and I shall see to it that