Jeeves Takes Charge

Jeeves Takes Charge Summary | Chapter 1 Summary

In this chapter Bertram "Bertie" Wooster describes how he first comes to meet and acquire the services of his manservant, Jeeves.

Wooster has been forced to interrupt the week he is spending at his uncle's home in Shropshire. He has discovered that his valet, named Meadowes, is stealing his silk socks and various other unspecified items, and he is therefore obliged to dispense with his services and return to London to find a new valet through an employment office.

A combination of drinking too much the previous evening, and trying to read a cerebrally-challenging book lent to him by his new fiancée, Florence Craye, has given Wooster a headache. He is feeling somewhat fragile when the doorbell rings, and he opens it to find "a darkish sort of respectful Johnnie" standing on the step, who announces himself as a candidate for the position of the new valet.

Although at that moment Wooster feels more in need of an undertaker than a valet, he invites the man in. Without asking any questions, the valet goes directly to the kitchen and prepares a raw egg with Worcester sauce and red pepper that he offers to Wooster, saying that it is beneficial "after a late evening." Wooster swallows it, and after a few moments of suspecting that he might spontaneously combust, he feels perfectly well. Immediately he hires the new man, who introduces himself as "Jeeves."

Wooster tells Jeeves that they will be leaving in two days time to return to the country. Jeeves notices a portrait of Florence Craye, and mentions that he had seen her when he was in the employ of her father, Lord Worplesdon, from whose service he had resigned because of his Lordship's strange taste in clothes. Wooster recalls that Lord Worplesdon was always an extremely eccentric and unpredictable man, of whom he had been afraid, and that unfortunately, if Florence has one fault, it is that she shares her father's temperament and can erupt unexpectedly. However, she has a wonderful profile.

He tells Jeeves that he is engaged to Florence, and from the tone of Jeeves' polite response he recognises that the valet does not approve of Florence. He can understand that, because she can be somewhat high-handed in dealing with the staff. At that moment a telegram arrives from Florence, ordering Wooster to return to Shropshire immediately. Although he finds this strange, as he is already planning to return the day after tomorrow, he does not discuss the matter with Jeeves, (as he would subsequently learn to do), and tells him to arrange for them to leave straight away. Jeeves assures him that he will have no difficulty in getting them both ready to depart.

When Wooster asks Jeeves his opinion of the suit he is wearing, although the manservant replies politely, there is something in his tone of voice again which signals that he does not approve of it. Determined not to be bullied by his new valet, like poor Aubrey Fothergill who was reduced to tears by his man disapproving of his favourite pair of brown shoes, Wooster questions Jeeves as to what is wrong with his suit. While he does not criticise it, Jeeves does tactfully suggest some quieter clothes, which idea Wooster defiantly rejects.

On the train journey Wooster worries as to what has caused Florence's urgent summons for him to return. He cannot imagine that anything untoward could have taken place in his uncle's house. Once they arrive, the butler tells Wooster that Florence and her maid are packing to go to a dance at another house and will be away for several days. When Wooster finds Florence she is plainly irritated, and she sidesteps his attempts to kiss her.

Florence's anger has been caused by an autobiography written by Wooster's uncle Willoughby, and she is not only shocked to read of Willoughby's own behavior, but also by the scurrilous accounts of events involving her father and other aristocrats. The manuscript, of which there is only a single copy, is due to be posted the next day to the publishers for immediate publication. Florence demands that Wooster must steal and destroy this manuscript before it can be published, otherwise she will never marry him. He protests that if Uncle Willoughby catches him stealing the manuscript he'll cut off his allowance, but Florence will accept no protest, nor his suggestion that she uses her obnoxious younger brother Edwin to steal and destroy the manuscript. By a combination of threat and cajoling, she forces Wooster to agree.

Feeling akin to a murderer as he plots his course of action, Wooster manages to remove the manuscript from the table where it is awaiting despatch to the publishers. As he tries to smuggle it into his room he finds horrible young Edwin in there, "doing an act of kindness" by tidying the room. Wooster manages, with difficulty, to encourage Edwin out of the way, and hides the manuscript in a drawer, which he locks, while he tries to think of a way of destroying the thick pile of paper without being seen. He becomes stressed and depressed as he contemplates what he is going to do next.

The following day his Uncle Willoughby announces that the publishers have told him that the manuscript has not arrived, and that he believes it has been stolen. He reminds Wooster that a number of objects have disappeared over the past weeks, and Wooster tells him that it was his previous valet, Meadowes, who was responsible, and whom he has sacked. Uncle Willoughby is utterly baffled by the mystery of the missing manuscript.

Later that evening, Wooster overhears the despicable young Edwin telling Uncle Willoughby that he has seen Wooster trying to hide a large package, and he suspects that it contains the manuscript. Uncle Willoughby decides to search Wooster's room. Wooster races back to his room intending to remove the package from his drawer, but he cannot find the key, which he had left in his evening trousers.

Uncle Willoughby makes up a lie as an excuse for searching Wooster's room, and as he tries to open the drawer, Jeeves arrives and produces the key. Wooster would like to murder Jeeves, but when the drawer is opened, the package has disappeared. After Uncle Willoughby has left the room, Jeeves tells Wooster that he had removed the parcel as he thought it was the best thing to do. Wooster thanks him for his intervention, and says that he will leave Jeeves to take the appropriate action with the manuscript.

The following day Florence returns and asks Wooster whether he has destroyed his uncle's manuscript. As he is trying to explain to her what has happened, Uncle Willoughby announces that he has had a call from his publisher to say that the manuscript has arrived safely. Florence is quite furious, and breaks her engagement to Wooster, saying that his Aunt Agatha was quite right to have a low opinion of him, and that although she had hoped to make something out of him, she sees now that he is impossible.

Jeeves admits to Wooster that he had posted the manuscript to the publishers, and that in his opinion people enjoyed seeing their names in print, and that old gentlemen particularly would be proud to see their youthful misbehavior advertised. Angrily Wooster tells him that Florence has broken off their engagement, and he sacks Jeeves.

Jeeves asks if, now that he is no longer an employee, he might speak frankly, and tells Wooster that he and Florence would have been most ill-matched, because she is a very bad-tempered girl and Wooster would not have been happy with her, nor would he have enjoyed having to read the books she had selected for him, particularly Nietsche. Wooster sends him away.

The next day, however, he finds himself thinking that Jeeves had not been entirely wrong about Florence's real nature. When Jeeves delivers his morning tea, he re-hires him, and asks his opinion again on the suit which Jeeves had tacitly disapproved of the previous day. Jeeves responds that the suit is a trifle too bizarre, and Wooster tells him to give it away. Smiling like a father at a child, Jeeves tells him that he had given the suit away the previous day, to the under-gardener.