A couple of days later I realized that the virus had gone even deeper
than I had thought. The kid was irremediably sordid.
It was old Mr. Anstruther who sprang the bad news.
"Oh, Mr. Wooster," he said, meeting me on the stairs. "You were good
enough to express an interest in this little prize for Good Conduct
which I am offering."
"Oh, ah?"
"I explained to you my system of marking, I believe. Well, this morning
I was impelled to vary it somewhat. The circumstances seemed to me
to demand it. I happened to encounter our hostess's nephew, the boy
Thomas, returning to the house, his aspect somewhat weary, it appeared
to me, and travel-stained.
"I inquired of him where he had been that early hour--it was not yet
breakfast time--and he replied that he had heard you mention overnight
a regret that you had omitted to order the _Sporting Times_ to be sent
to you before leaving London, and he had walked all the way to the
railway station, a distance of more than three miles, to procure it for
you."
The old boy swam before my eyes. He looked like two old Mr.
Anstruthers, both flickering at the edges. "What!"
"I can understand your emotion, Mr. Wooster," said the old boy. "I can
appreciate it. It is indeed rarely that one encounters such unselfish
kindliness in a lad of his age. So genuinely touched was I by his
goodness of heart that I have deviated from my original system and
awarded the little fellow a bonus of fifteen marks."
"Fifteen!"
"On second thoughts, I shall make it twenty. That, as you yourself
suggested, is a nice round number."
He doddered away, and I bounded off to find Aunt Dahlia.
"Aunt Dahlia," I said, "matters have taken a sinister turn."
"You bet your Sunday spats they have," agreed Aunt Dahlia emphatically.
"Do you know what happened just now? That crook Snettisham offered
Bonzo ten shillings if he would burst a paper bag behind Mr.
Anstruther's chair at breakfast.
"Thank heaven, the love of a good woman triumphed again. My sweet Bonzo
merely looked at him and walked away in a marked manner. But it just
shows you what we are up against."
"We are up against worse than that, Aunt Dahlia," I said. And I told
her what had happened.