Hello and welcome to My Career and Data, a podcast where we discuss with industry leaders and experts how they have built their careers. I'm your host Shannon Kemp, and today we're talking to Doug Kimball at Ontotext. With a robust catalog of courses offered on demand and industry-leading live online sessions throughout the year, the DataVersity Training Center is your launchpad for career success. Browse the complete catalog at training.datavercity.net and use code DVTOX for 20% off your purchase. Hello and welcome. My name is Shannon Kemp, and I'm the Chief Digital Officer at DataVersity, and this is My Career in Data, a DataVersity Talks podcast dedicated to learning from those who have careers in data management to understand how they got there and to be talking with people who help make those careers a little bit easier. To keep up to date in the latest in data management education, go to DataVersity.net forward slash subscribe. Today we are joined by Doug Kimball, the Chief Marketing Officer at Ontotext, and normally this is where a podcast host would read a short bio of the guest, but in this podcast, your bio is what we're here to talk about. Doug, hello and welcome. Hi, Shannon. I'm excited to be here. I like to flip with the other twists here. I'm starting off with all about me, because we're going to talk all about me. No, I'm kidding. So yeah, I'm excited. I think I love what you guys are doing. This is an outstanding effort. Thank you so much. We are here to talk about you and how you got to where you are. So let's start with that. So where are you're the Chief Marketing Officer at Ontotext? So what is Ontotext? We are a knowledge graph company. That's probably the shortest version of the answer. So the differences between like a relational database like access and knowledge graph, it's about as different as your brain is to a computer chip. You know, you can do knowledge graphs, create relationships, understand data better, help drive analytics. There's a ton of things that knowledge graphs do. If you've never seen them before, but if you use Google or if you use IMDB or Uber or things like that, you've used a knowledge graph. So that's what we do. Oh, I love that description. I haven't heard that before. And that's a very, very good description, very understandable description. Try to make it spin. Well, let's talk about it. So you're the CMO. So what is it that you do at Ontotext?  My key, my and the team's key focus is on two main things. Market awareness, you know, who is on the text? And what do we do? Why do we do it? And then lead, basically demand generation lead generation. So how do we then say, okay, cool. I want to go buy something from Ontotext because I need their data management knowledge graph services.  So bringing in the years of experience, I haven't saying, let's try this. Let's look at this way. Let's try these plans. Let's try these programs, these channels, different ways of doing things. And just providing that vision to say, here's what we're trying to go after. Here's what we're trying to close from a business standpoint. Here's what we want to make people aware. And then laying out the plan. I've got a great team that I work with. So that makes my job a lot easier. That's amazing. So let's talk about then that experience. So let's back it up quite a bit here. And so Doug, you know, when you were very young in what in the US, we call elementary school. Was this the dream? I'm going to grow up to be a CMO at a knowledge graph company. Absolutely. I mean, I've already done it. No, I'm kidding.  So I missed something in this whole process going from astronaut to CMO, but my earliest recollections of being an astronaut, probably because I'm sorry, I'm old, not long after the moon landing. Actually, I was a liar during the moon landing. So I think those little things around my mind were watching the TV. So as I grew up, I always found I was very good at talking to people and people wanted to talk to me and share and tell their stories. And here's my challenges, my problems. So ended up going into psychology and becoming a counselor. Again, counselor CMO. We'll come back to that. It's fascinating. So you got your degree in counseling. I was a professional counselor for seven years. I did personal counseling, academic counseling. My biggest focus was academic, but also did career counseling part time. So it not only was it in a good evolution from being a psychology major, but it was also it fit me. In other words, I, you know, I, like I said, people like to come to me and I say, not just, hey, Doug, I'm having a bad day, but I'm just, I'm not sure what to do. I'm a natural problem solver, but also try to extract from that and say, well, let's talk about what's really going on before we get to the problem solving. Tell me a little bit about academic counseling. What is that? So I had the fortune to work with a, basically, I'll call it a startup. It was a part of the university, an athletic study center. So it was a place for the students, athletes to go to get everything from mentoring, guidance, time management, proofreading. We did not do their work. I completed 100%, never, never did their work, but we helped them to do their work. In other words, sometimes they didn't come in with a best understanding of how to use an education system or how to put a paper together or how to, you know, and they got tutoring. So it was really about, you know, enablement, which again I keep finding as this key theme of things I've done over my last several years. It was about enablement and support. And we grew this academic, this athletic study center from a very small organization to some of the NCAA schools actually start reaching out to us and recognizing as an interest. So we got brought into things. It was a great period of my life. I learned a ton about project management, about education, about teaching and support. Wow, that's very cool. Yeah, I'm sure there's a lot of people who'd be very envious of that experience. You work with diverse people, diverse populations.  And they come into the university being the number one person at XYZ. And now we're the bunch of number ones. It's a mindset change. And also I think it really helped me to understand the need for communication and collaboration even further because you had to take this person who they were great. But how do you help them understand they're great like everybody else is in the same level. And how do you turn that greatness into action that gets seeing observed and used. That's amazing. What a rewarding experience. What was one was one. So then tell me, so you, so what was the transition from counseling. I had an opportunity to go work for the Nielsen company. My best friend worked there. And so you should know because he knew I was doing a lot with technology and starting my computer lab and I was doing my version of technology. It's not, you know, I'm not a SQL programmer. But I got the point with what I had done with both counseling and the career counseling I've done kind of I checked all the boxes. This is cool. This is fun. I felt like there was something more out there. So I interviewed for a sales job. Horrible. I did a horrible interview. It's the one I think in the sales right away. It would just be there. But the something about the guy that I said the guy really liked and he passed me on to a consulting VP there, who brought me in for a second interview. I did something right there. And so I made the switch the switch from education to business. And I remember the second week I'm flying back from a training conference. Looking out the window going a planogram and band brand placement versus cross placement. But like, what have I done. It's just, but it worked out okay. Yeah. So just tell me a little bit about that job. So they originally they tried to turn me into a programmer because there was a big a VBA was huge and we did a lot of customized work for our clients. It's like, you know, it took me through training and they had guys sit with me. And I just I could write a real basic set of code and sort of understand it. But I didn't. It just wasn't me. They really they liked my attitude or anything. So one day my boss said, Hey, I got a project management job for you. And one of our largest clients a manufacturer in Chicago. And you know, I need you to go and kind of take over this project and run it makes okay cool.   He says, I don't know who you are.  So good friendly conversation. Yeah, I've been with Nielsen at that point maybe five months.  I completely BS my way through the next time it's the conversation saying basically, you know, I'm here to succeed I'm here to make a difference for the cup for this company. I'm here just you know you can kick me out I'll be back the next day and the next day and the next day. Why didn't use that mindset during my sales and review I don't know why. But I mean I on the outside, Mr calm cool and collected sweet inside. And he looked at me for what for like an hour and eventually said okay, you've got one chance don't it up. And so I screwed out there. And because I had a great team and I just decided to make it happen. I, I helped to drive that program we delivered to success for both the companies. I became the subject matter expert for it for the company for Nielsen I helped go out and sell it and product is market it over the next year or so, because I had brought it to decide I was the guy who knew it all about that particular thing. Because of that success, the company who built the tool for us brought me in as a director of operations because they need was an expanding web company is I went from Nielsen to this, this web company. I went from operations and take over team of I think I had 28 people. When I joined there about seeing kind of manage all that. And so just, again, interesting hopscotch of opportunities. So going from counseling to business going. Sorry, go ahead. No, I love that story that that is a story of determination that is a story of believing in yourself and and really taking it forward. There was there was some fake it till you make it but yeah, I had a good friend when I joined the company said you know, this is a new world for you but you've got the ability to make it successful you just have to take it. Yeah. Okay. Nice. Very cool. So, okay, so, so then so you say now you're with this new company. Yeah. So, so tell me what you're doing there and what's what's next. Yeah, I'll do a bit of a hopscotch from there so I ran by how was the basically, you know, there was there was a three leaders of the three leaders of the company, working directly with the founder and the founder and I brought in all the season CEO and myself are kind of the Triumvirate help to continue to put up for put processes in place I helped write a project management manual. I introduced the concept of product marketing to them. I was a handle sales development a lot of just a while was I was a sales person that was an operations leader I was a team manager restructure the team reporting structure, brought some of the little bit of the little bit of corporate minds that I had into what was you know very much typical of the dot boom type of stuff you know like working 24 hours for one day and then being gone for 18 or sleep, just put some structure around that. I had a merger and acquisition that I still came out on a decent side of no money but at least I was still in a good position I wasn't let go. But around that time, the guy, one of the leaders I had worked with at the Nielsen company before was now working for another new company based in, I think it was Jersey, and had been talking to me for a while talking to me for a while and he recruited me, and long story short, went to work for him for another job for year and a half ish. Yeah. So, and then then went back to the Nielsen company because my job changed and they open up a plop to run the consulting division for was the Midwest. That's why my career has been a very puzzling convoluted path that I got been very fortunate. But, you know, if I look at you know the diversity there, it started to sink in on me probably halfway through the journey how much I've been involved with or around data from the one company was called you see CNET, and they look at the standardized barcode documents and the communication the synchronization of all that information. G 10s etc etc, so data. I was the Nielsen the first time Nielsen the second time demographic data for my graphic data person you know people data product, data goes on and on. Yeah, yeah. So then, where do you go from there to to your current job on to text. So, went from Nielsen they went through a layoff series I mean I think I lasted through the fifth one I got let go there. enjoyed that at all being unemployed for a year and a half, which I do not recommend to anybody took a job with a supply chain company again in sales, based in Chicago. I was there maybe three months before me constantly asking about marketing needs.  So they made me the director of marketing. They had a marketing person but they were mainly just wearing one event focus thing. So, got the fun as a director marketing started to build out a marketing team was a small company we have like four or five people the marketing team, and just continue to build that out and grew. I got a company based in Brazil so I got to go to Brazil for work which is really very cool. Especially since my hobby is Brazilian jujitsu, so I've been doing that for almost 15 and a half 16 years. Wow. That company, they did a nice merger they grew but then they started to cut back based on some of the leadership in Brazil making some changes was unemployed for a little bit that I went over to JDA the supply larger supply chain company now called blue yonder. I came on there as a product marketing director, which I loved, because I've been doing product marketing in some forms or fashion, over the last couple years, and I think it was at JDA where I really is really came into my own being. The concept that hadn't been used before is a supply I called the supply chain grid, and I got adopted throughout the company I saw him in Main State was pretty cool to be a product marketing person and having this impact on a global organization like that. You know, I got to do a lot of fun things and learned a lot we're person really good and really smart people I still stay in touch with a couple of them. That was I was at a point where my boss had left. And I wanted to find now it's kind of grow but I was kind of stuck at the director level and I really want to take a VP title as my next segment. And so I changed jobs for a company that was very interesting, got a VP lot job there and four to five weeks and I went I'm in the wrong company. Yeah, it was a, it didn't take long before my yay VP. And I'm working hard but again, it was about it was related to data was world by exchanging transportation data and the signals and everything from ocean vessels to trucks to shipment it was a fascinating fascinating company they're doing they're doing. They do great things just will leave the rest of it out. So I was ended up being recruited by the guy who I used to work for was a JDA to go work for a master data management company. Okay, we're back we're even deeper in the data now. So I worked in master data management for about four years as start out as VP solution strategy, basically, in short, basically VP of product and industry marketing. We had to change the title for a variety of reasons, but ran a team there did a lot of thought leadership a lot of presentations a couple podcasts before we even had a diversity. I don't know if you know Scott, the data whisper, Scott Taylor. Yeah, I've known Scott since the TD links days when I was back at Nielsen so we connected and we continue to stay connected. I got to have a lot of really cool experiences I learned so much when I was there to expand my my marketing tactics vision strategy, how to do things differently better faster. You know, it was, it was a great experience with great people learned a lot more about data management like, you know, going back to me being second grade. Look at him and I learned a ton. So it was a it was a good, a good process, most of it. More and more companies are considering investing in data literacy education, but still have questions about its value purpose and how to get the ball rolling. Introducing the newest monthly webinar series from Dataversity, elevating enterprise data literacy, where we discuss the landscape of data literacy and answer your burning questions. Learn more about this new series and register for free at dataversity.net. It's nice. And then and now you are CMO. Yeah, and now I'm CMO and they went through again couple couple of cuts based on marketing. I had to cut budgets across the thing. But fortunately, I had a good introduction into the recruiting process was going on for this this job, you know, went through, you know, seven or eight people, the part of the process and either they lost their mind or they found the right candidate. I'm not sure. Yes, a joint joint out the text in early November of last year. Congratulations. Yeah, been pretty cool. That's awesome. I love your story. It's it's wonderful love of primes and challenges. Congrats on, yeah, persevering and really just turning it into success. That's amazing. My job is having a lot of good leaders and mentors. And if I gave anybody any advice they go through their career journey is find a or a mentor or more mentors, because even the mentors that might bug you annoy you and make you really they make you think differently and learn differently and respond differently. I would not be where I am right now without some very good leaders behind me. I think that's really great advice and let's come back to that here in that in a minute. So, onto text so now you've worked with data, especially after working with an MDM company and going through that. So what is your definition of data. We have to go in. So before that has used to drives and my colleagues much because I use it a lot, but it's the difference in my mind between digitization and digitalization. Okay, so I've got, I got my phone so I take a picture of me. Okay, I've now created an item of data. So I just I've got you know it's it's an image of me so it's a it's unstructured data but it's data. So I want to, so I've now I've now digitized me as a data point, but digital data digital by itself does nothing. If I then send that picture up to Google photos as an example. Now I can potentially digitalize that because you know they can scan me and a dog and this peer here the connection here, and maybe you look like this person or you get added to Google search index. So digitalize my data into something that is being used as a as an activity versus just a, hey it's a great selfie. That's one way to look at data it's it's it's information it's not information sorry information is different data is just a piece of something that we then have to apply context interpretation information, information, a question, a need. So make sure me it's just a picture it's nothing until somebody goes, hey we need a profile pick of Doug for, or let's do a face matching game and see what, you know, that becomes useful. Yeah. I love that I love that definition so and tell me, especially in marketing I assume you use a lot of data in your daily job. I rely on people are really good at using it give me data. Yes, because it's ironic you know I'm the guys around data for you. I'm not a heavy analytics person. I'm very good at messaging and positioning and spotting patterns and things that don't make sense as part of data. But I'm not a data analytics person I've got a fantastic marketing director who lives for understanding Google analytics and the details. Not just looking at it and saying hey here's something we should change here because of this. We do the same thing with our ABM campaigns, make sure analyzing data properly get the right results. I probably do use a lot more data in my thinking that I that I like to acknowledge because I like to really like realize reading is data. Reading a sentence and learning about data mesh or data fabric or knowledge graphs or semantic technology or like is reading so bringing data in. In order for me to do things with its messaging positioning giving guidance and vision, you know, suggesting changes for our products demos. So it's, you're making me think I like this. I love it too and I love that you talk about reading because that hasn't been brought up before and that you're very, that's very true you're you're consuming data as you're learning anything. That's great. I do my wife a lot of credit because one day and I'm like this loads of transition here is one day. She's listening to me talking my job for ad nauseam. I explained the difference between MDM and knowledge graphs because she understands the pieces what talked about and she said, so MDM is like the letters of the alphabet and knowledge graph is like a sentence. Like, I got really quiet in the car for a while she's like, I get it wrong like, no that's really good. I kind of added to that it was like it's like they create the sentence because now it adds context and meaning to the letters. Right. But that truly is how you look at data is you just start up a little something. You know, from that something into information. And then have an information structured in a way that now you can get some insights out of work, you know, even just wisdom to say now I learned something new. So, I thought it was a, I actually used it on my briefing documents for an event and people like it so it was good. That is very good. Having that experience with data and so do you see the importance of data management and the number of jobs working with data increasing or decreasing over the next 10 years and why 10 is a hard one because of all the changes just in the last nine months that have freaked out a lot of chat GPT and generative AI and LLMs. That said, I can't see the jobs going down because people who understand how to get to the data how to interpret the data how to connect the data, you know, feel like data architects did engineers. But I think also data storytellers the people who can then make sense of the data you get people are really really good at bringing it all together, but they can't tell you what to do with it as a result of. And so people who can take that analytic brain, the what if and to tell the story about what is data means, you know, here's some suggestions here's some guidance. So then also I think data creatives I'm not sure that's the right term, but people can look at what comes out of data and apply an interpretation to that, that, you know, you and I might not think about because we think like this and very people are very creative and data centric. What if you turn the data like that and you know, I have a vision in my head of like when Tony Stark and Iron Man has this big visual thing he's rotating around. But that's, that's how I approach a lot of problems I approach I look at I deal with is. Okay, what I look at it from the left hand side and underneath the bed as I can I see things a little more clearly now I can't do that with data all the time. But there are people who have that ability to truly connect the dots and make sense of it so long answer I don't. I think somebody who's got an interest in a data career, their biggest challenges which part. Oh, so so so tell me about that so. So what advice then would you give to people looking to an a data career how do they find which part. Yeah, I'm a huge fan of internships you having come from the career counseling world for years ago internships. You know, ride alongs. These are very helpful in ton of resources on the internet, but everything from watching webinars just get a sense of no it doesn't sound like me it doesn't sound interesting. Changing a mindset that not every job sits behind a desk for eight hours a day. Well, you just you know just poking around learning asking people questions paying attention to podcasts like you're putting together to say, Oh, there's no there's a job I didn't even know existed that to make that hop back. That's why I got into project management I was back at my in my university job. They needed to install a whole new computer lab and I was supposed I was taking over the job and they said, well making a contract was a contract job for the summer. Manager for blah, blah, blah, that sounds like what I like to do. But I never knew there was a job or a title like that like. Yeah, cool. You mentioned before getting mentors. Yeah, how have you found your mentors and throughout your career. I mean, I've been a little fortunate in that I've worked I've had people that I've worked for and with that have been very sharp. And for me so much just come down to is this person the right feel for what I need to try to learn why I need to challenge myself. Somebody I will trust to poke at my holes in other words Doug Doug doesn't know this stuff yet and you know hey Doug you need to add these. People you trust, who are not just smart, but good at helping you to become smarter. And that's, that's a hard one to easily go is that in the phone book is in my.  I understand how to do, you know, sequel joins more effectively or who's been through this, you know, and start from the beginning just asking questions. Having that bit of boldness that I'm trying and you know positioning that I'm trying to better myself as a as a playing and you've been a successful career with butter up help me to understand things. I think people in generally are always like, like to help. Yeah, yeah, that's amazing. I love that. I love that. And, and I love that you aren't taking this journey by yourself. You've had help along the way. Yeah. I don't think anyone can make it on their own. That's one of the, one of the harder points when you get to being a C level is that it's a little harder to get, you know, mentors that level, not that level, I'm not saying that right.  I mean, I got stuff going to see you I can talk to what he's got you know he's got the business he's running. So I'm actually I'm trying to get back in touch with my my my former CMO because he and I always played well together. It's just a, here's one thing about doing anything.  Don't do this. Thumb from the chest and go on. But, you know, we've always been good about bouncing ideas off of each other. So yeah, that's again, I need to be vulnerable say I'm not always sure what I'm doing. I love that. That's great.  So yeah, that's really amazing. Any other advice you give to people getting into a career and data management. Taking the time to learn more and the reason I really emphasize that is again, I was in the MDM company, we did data management. And I've gone to three or four conferences just this year who are focusing on data management. Well, it's a data analytics conference. It's data management. And so I try to look at the world from how I just walked into it. So I just walked into this conference and I know I need a data management solution of some kind. That's all I know.  I mean, data diversity does data management. It's helping to break down what is it that I'm most interested in. As you said earlier, passionate about, what is that? What is that of calling to me? Is it, you know, hands on coding? Is it interpretation? Just, you know, taking the time to learn. Absolutely. And do you find that you are using all your experiences in your current role, including your, your counseling? Yes, definitely.  So I'm hoping I don't lose power. That would be better. Yeah, I think I definitely think so. And that's one of the things when I got counseling into the business, I was I asked myself the question is just how is this going to translate. And it didn't take more than I think a couple of years where I really, really realized that it's the same thing. How are you today? What are you here to do? How can I help you fix your problems? The challenges, solutions, plug it in. You know, what do you think of the challenges? Again, getting people to talk and articulate themselves. And then getting to, you know, here to identify a plan in order to solve that. The only thing I do look back that I find is amusing is, you know, growing up I was the kid my mom said you need to enunciate. You need to slow down. You need to start and stop mumbling. And now from our last, I guess, eight years of jobs, I've been being the guy who's out there talking up on stage presenting I'm doing podcast like, I'm the mumbling. Oh, no, you've been very well spoken practice, I guess. Indeed. Well, Doug, this has been great so but I would be remiss if I didn't ask if how people if people were curious about onto text and in obtaining a knowledge graph what how would they get a hold of onto text. There's several ways I always I always suggest our LinkedIn, you know, when LinkedIn location, you know, just onto text, you know, and, you know, on the LinkedIn, because we post a lot of informational pieces there case studies conversations again as part of education, depending where they're looking just help some understand what is that particular piece of the world not just knowledge graphs with semantic technology etc. Obviously our website on you know onto text calm. I'm on LinkedIn feel free to reach out to me and just ask a question happy to help out. It's just, it's all about learning. Oh, I love it. Thank you so much and we'll get those links from you and get it posted to the podcast page as well. So, Doug, I really enjoyed this conversation I really love your journey. So congratulations on on where you are and and the journey taken. Thanks to the forum to share it again there's there's there's there's days I just sit here in amazement going. Really cool. I understand that very much. Thank you again so much. And to all of our listeners out there. If you'd like to keep up to date in the latest in podcasts and in the latest in data management education you may go to data or city net forward slash so subscribe. Until next time. Thank you for listening to data for city talks, a podcast brought to you by data for city subscribe to our newsletter for podcasts updates and information about our free educational webinars at data for city net forward slash subscribe.


CHAPTER 10 SENSATIONAL OCCURANCE AT A POETRY READING breakfast was over and the guests of blandings had scattered to their morning occupations. Some were writing letters, some were in the billiard room, some had gone to the stables, some to the links. Lady Constance was interviewing the housekeeper. Lord Emsworth harrying head gardener Macalester among the flower beds, and in the ewe alley, the dappled sunlight falling upon her graceful head, Miss Peavey walked pensively up and down. She was alone. It is a sad but indisputable fact that in this imperfect world genius is too often condemned to walk alone, if the earthier members of the community see it coming and have time to duck. Not one of the horde of visitors who had arrived overnight for the county ball had shown any disposition whatever to court Miss Peavey's society. One regrets this, except for that slight bias towards dishonesty which led her to steal everything she could lay her hands on that was not nailed down. Eileen Peavey's was an admirable character, and, oddly enough, it was the noble side of her nature to which these coarse-fibred critics objected. Of Miss Peavey, the perloiner of other people's goods, they knew nothing. The woman they were dodging was Miss Peavey the poetess. And it may be mentioned that, however much she might unbend in the presence of a congenial friend like Mr. Edward Coots, she was a perfectly genuine poetess. Those six volumes under her name in the British Museum catalogue were her own genuine and unaided work. And, though she had been compelled to pay for the production of the first of the series, the other five had been brought out at her publisher's own risk, and had even made a little money. Miss Peavey, however, was not sorry to be alone, for she had that on her mind which called for solitary thinking. The matter engaging her attention was the problem of what on earth had happened to Mr. Edward Coots. Two days had passed since he had left her to go and force Smith, at the pistol's point, to introduce him into the castle. And since that moment he had vanished completely. Miss Peavey could not understand it. His non-appearance was all the more galling in that her superb brain had just completed in every detail a scheme for the seizure of Lady Constance Keeble's diamond necklace. And to the success of this plot his aid was an indispensable adjunct. She was in the position of a general, who comes from his tent with a plan of battle all mapped out, and finds that his army has strolled off somewhere and left him. Little wonder that, as she paced the U Alley, there was a frown on Miss Peavey's fair forehead. The U Alley, as Lord Emsworth had indicated in his extremely interesting lecture to Mr. Ralston MacTodd at the Senior Conservative Club, contained among other noteworthy features certain U's which rose in solid blocks with rounded roof and stemless mushroom finials, the majority possessing arched recesses forming arbors. As Miss Peavey was passing one of these a voice suddenly addressed her. Hey! Miss Peavey started violently. Anyone about? A damp face with twigs sticking to it was protruding from a nearby U. It rolled its eyes in an ineffectual effort to see around the corner. Miss Peavey drew nearer, breathing heavily. The question as to the whereabouts of her wandering boy was solved, but the abruptness of his return had caused her to bite her tongue, and joy, as she confronted him, was blended with other emotions. You dish-faced gazoony! she exclaimed heededly, her voice trembling with a sense of ill usage. Where do you get that stuff hiding in trees and barking a girl's head off? Sorry, Liz, I— And where? Proceeded Miss Peavey, ventilating another grievance.  Gosh, ding it! You leave me a couple of days back, saying you're going to stick up this bozo that calls himself Mac Todd with a gat, and make him get you into the house, and that's the last I see of you. What's the big idea? It's all right, Liz. He did get me into the house. I'm his valet. That's why I couldn't get at you before. The way the help has to keep itself to itself in this joint, we might as well have been in different countries. If I hadn't happened to see you snooping off by yourself this morning— Miss Peavey's keen mind grasped the position of affairs. All right, all right, she interrupted, ever impatient of long speeches from others. I understand. Well, this is good, Ed. It couldn't have worked out better. I've got a scheme all doped out, and now you're here we can get busy. A scheme? A pippen, assented Miss Peavey. It'll need to be, said Mr. Coots, on whom the events of the last few days had caused pessimism to set its seal. I tell you that Mac Todd gook is smooth. He somehow, said Mr. Coots prudently, for he feared harsh criticisms from his lady-love should he reveal the whole truth. He somehow got wise to the notion that, as I was his valet, I could go and snoop around in his room, where he'd be wanting to hide the stuff if he ever got it, and now he's gone and got them to let him have a kind of shack in the woods. Hmm, said Miss Peavey. Well, she resumed after a thoughtful pause. I'm not worrying about him. Let him go and roost in the woods all he wants to. I've got a scheme all ready, and it's guilt-edged.  Am I in it? You bet you're in it. I can't work it without you. That's what's been making me so darn mad when you didn't show up all this time. Spill it, Liz, said Mr. Coots humbly. As always, in the presence of this dynamic woman, he was suffering from an inferiority complex. From the very start of their combined activities, she had been the brains of the firm. He merely the instrument to carry into effect the plans she dictated. Miss Peavey glanced swiftly up and down the U.L.E. It was still the same peaceful, lonely spot. She turned to Mr. Coots again and spoke with brisk decision. Now listen, Ed, and get this straight, because maybe I shan't have another chance of talking to you. I'm listening, said Mr. Coots, obsequiously. Well, to begin with, now that the house is full, her nibs is wearing that necklace every night. And you can take it from me, Ed, that you want to put on your smoked glasses before you look at it. It's a lullapalooza. As good as that? Ask me, you don't know the half of it. Where does she keep it, Liz? Have you found that out? asked Mr. Coots, a gleam of optimism playing across his sad face for an instant. No, I haven't, and I don't want to. I've not got time to waste monkeying about with safes and maybe having the whole bunch pile on the back of my neck. I believe in getting things easy. Well, tonight this bimbo that calls himself Mac Todd is going to give a reading of his poems in the big drawing room. You know where that is? I can find out. And you better had find out, said Miss Peavey vehemently. And before tonight at that. Well, there you are. Do you begin to get wise? Mr. Coots, his head protruding unhappily from the yew-tree, would have given much to have been able to make the demanded claim to wisdom, for he knew of old the store his alert partner set upon quickness of intellect. He was compelled, however, to disturb the branches by shaking his head. You always were pretty dumb, said Miss Peavey, with scorn. I'll say that you've got good solid qualities, Ed, from the neck up.  See? But, Liz, Mr. Coots diffidently summoned up courage to point out what appeared to him to be a flaw in the scheme. If you start any strong armwork in front of everybody, like the way you say, won't they? No, they won't. And I'll tell you why they won't. They aren't going to see me do it, because when I do it, it's going to be good and dark in that room. And it's going to be dark, because you'll be somewheres out at the back of the house, wherever they keep the main electric like-works. Turn in the switch as hard as you can go. See? That's your end of it, and pretty soft for you at that. All you have to do is to find out where the thing is, and what you have to do to put out all the lights in the joint. I guess I can trust you not to bungle that. Liz, said Mr. Coots, and there was reverence in his voice. You can do just that little thing. But what—alright, I know what you're going to say. What happens after that, and how do I get away with the stuff? Well, the window will be open, and I'll just get to it and fling the necklace out. See? There'll be a big fuss going on in the room on account of the darkness and all that. And while everybody's cutting up and what the helling, you'll pick up your dogs and run round as quick as you can make it and poach the thing. I guess it won't be hard for you to locate. The window's just over the terrace—all smooth turf. And it isn't really dark nights now, and you ought to have plenty of time to hunt around before they can get the lights going again. Well, what do you think of it? There was a brief silence. Liz, said Mr. Coots, at length. Is it or is it not? demanded Miss Peavey. A ball of fire. Liz, said Mr. Coots, and his voice was husky with such awe as some young officer of Napoleon's staff might have felt on hearing the details of the latest plan of campaign. Liz, I've said it before, and I'll say it again. When it comes to the smooth stuff, old girl, you're the oyster's eye-tooth. And, reaching out an arm from the recesses of the U, he took Miss Peavey's hand in his and gave it a tender squeeze. A dreamy look came into the poetess's fine eyes, and she giggled a little. Dumbbell, though he was, she loved this man. Part 2 Mr. Baxter. Yes, Miss Holiday. The brains of Blandings looked abstractly up from his desk. It was only some half-hour since luncheon had finished, but already he was in the library surrounded by large books like a sea-beast among rocks. Most of his time was spent in the library when the castle was full of guests, for his lofty mind was ill-attuned to the frivolous babblings of social butterflies. I wonder if you could spare me this afternoon, said Eve.  The whole afternoon? If you don't mind. You see, I had a letter by the second post from a great friend of mine saying that she will be in market Blandings this afternoon, and asking me to meet her there. I must see her, Mr. Baxter. Please! You've known notion how important it is." Eve's manner was excited, and her eyes as they met Baxter's sparkled in a fashion that might have disturbed a man made of less stern stuff. If it had been the honourable Freddy Thripwood, for instance, who had been gazing into their blue depths, that impulsive youth would have tied himself into knots and yapped like a dog. Baxter, the superhuman, felt no urge towards any such display. He reviewed her request calmly and judiciously, and decided that it was a reasonable one. Very well, Miss Halliday. Thank you ever so much. I'll make up for it by working twice as hard tomorrow. Eve flitted to the door, pausing there to bestow a grateful smile upon him before going out, and Baxter returned to his reading. For a moment he was conscious of a feeling of regret that this quite attractive and uniformly respectful girl should be the partner in crime of a man of whom he disapproved even more than he disapproved of most malfactors. Then he crushed down the weak emotion, and was himself again. Eve trotted downstairs, humming happily to herself. She had expected a longer and more strenuous struggle before she obtained her order of release, and told herself that, despite a manner which seldom deviated from the forbidding, Baxter was really quite nice. In short, it seemed to her that nothing could possibly occur to mar the joyfulness of this admirable afternoon. And it was only when a voice hailed her as she was going through the hall a few minutes later that she realized that she was mistaken. The voice, which trembled throttley, was that of the Honorable Freddie, and her first look at him told Eve an expert diagnetician that he was going to propose to her again. Well, Freddie, said Eve, resignedly. The Honorable Frederick Threepwood was a young man who was used to hearing people say, Well, Freddie, resignedly, when he appeared. His father said it, his aunt Constance said it, all his other aunts and uncles said it. Widely differing personalities in every other respect, they all said, Well, Freddie, resignedly, directly they caught sight of him. Eve's words, therefore, and the tone in which they were spoken did not damp him as they might have damped another. His only feeling was one of solemn gladness at the thought that at last he had managed to get her alone for half a minute. The fact that this was the first time he had been able to get her alone since her arrival at the castle had caused Freddie a good deal of sorrow. Bad luck was what he attributed it to, thereby giving the object of his affections less credit than was her due for a masterly policy of evasion. He sidled up, looking like a well-dressed sheep. Going anywhere, he inquired. Yes, I'm going to Market Blandings. Isn't it a lovely afternoon? I suppose you are busy all the time now that the house is full. Goodbye, said Eve. Eh! said Freddie, blinking. Goodbye, I must be hurrying. Where did you say you were going? Market Blandings. I'll come with you. No, I want to be alone. I've got to meet someone there. Come with you as far as the gates, said Freddie, the human limpet. The afternoon sun seemed to Eve to be shining a little less brightly as they started down the drive. She was a kind-hearted girl, and it irked her to have to be continually acting as a black frost in Freddie's garden of dreams. There appeared, however, to be but two ways out of the thing. Either she must accept him, or he must stop proposing. The first of these alternatives she resolutely declined to consider, and as far as was ascertainable from his actions Freddie declined just as resolutely to consider the second. The result was that solitary interviews between them were seldom wholly free from embarrassing developments. They walked for a while in silence. Then, your dashed hard on a fellow, said Freddie. How was your putting coming on? asked Eve. Eh? Your putting?  She was not looking at him, for she had developed a habit of not looking at him on these occasions. But she assumed that the odd sound which greeted her remark was a hollow, mirthless laugh. My putting? Well, you told me yourself it's the most important part of golf. Golf? Do you think I have time to worry about golf these days? Oh, how splendid, Freddie! Are you really doing some work of some kind? It's quite time, you know. Think how pleased your father will be. I say, said Freddie, I do think you might marry a chap. I suppose I shall some day, said Eve, if I meet the right one. No, no, said Freddie despairingly. She was not usually so dense as this. He had always looked on her as a dashed, clever girl. I mean, me! Eve sighed. She had hoped to avert the inevitable. Oh, Freddie! she exclaimed, exasperated. She was still sorry for him, but she could not help being irritated. It was such a splendid afternoon, and she had been feeling so happy. And now he had spoiled everything. It always took her at least half an hour to get over the nervous strain of refusing his proposals. I love you, dash it, said Freddie. Well, do stop loving me, said Eve. I'm an awful girl, really. I'd make you miserable. Happiest man in the world, corrected Freddie devoutly. I've got a frightful temper.  Eve's exasperation increased. She always had a curious fear that one of these days, if he went on proposing, she might say, yes, by mistake. She wished that there was some way known to science of stopping him once and for all. And in her desperation she thought of a line of argument which she had not yet employed. It's so absurd, Freddie, she said. Really it is. Apart from the fact that I don't want to marry you, how can you marry anyone? Anyone, I mean, who hasn't plenty of money. Wouldn't dream of marrying for money. No, of course not, but— Cupid, said Freddie woodenly. Pines and sickens in a gilded cage. Eve had not expected to be surprised by anything her companion might say. It being her experience that he possessed a vocabulary of about forty-three words and a sum total of ideas that hardly ran into two figures. But this poetic remark took her back. What? Freddie repeated the observation. When it had been flashed on the screen as a spoken subtitle in the Six Real Wonder Film Love or Memo, Beatrice Cumley and Brian Fraser, he had approved and made a note of it. Oh! said Eve, and was silent. As Miss Peavey would have put it, it held her for a while. What I meant, she went on after a moment, was that you can't possibly marry a girl without money unless you have some money of your own. I say, dash it! A strange note of jubilation had come into the wooer's voice. I say, is that really all that stands between us? Because, no, it isn't. Because, look here, I'm going to have quite a good deal of money at any moment. It's more or less of a secret, you know. In fact, a pretty deadish secret, so keep it dark. But Uncle Joe is going to give me a couple of thousand quid. He promised me. Two thousand of the Christmas. Absolutely. Uncle Joe? You know, old Keeble. He's going to give me a couple of thousand quid. And then I'm going to buy a partnership in a bookie's business and simply coin money. Stands to reason, I mean. You can't help making your ballet fortune. Look at all the mugs who are losing money all the time at the races. It's the bookies that get the stuff. A pal of mine who was up at Oxford with me is in a bookie's office, and they're going to let me in if I—the momentous nature of his information had caused Eve to deviate now from her policy of keeping her eyes off Freddie when in emotional vain. And, if she had desired to check his lecture on finance, she could have chosen no better method than to look at him. For, meeting her gaze, Freddie immediately lost the thread of his discourse and stood yammering. A direct hit from Eve's eyes always affected him in this way. Mr. Keeble is going to give you two thousand pounds? A wave of mortification swept over Eve. If there was one thing on which she prided herself, it was the belief that she was a loyal friend, a staunch pal, and now, for the first time, she found herself facing the unpleasant truth that she had been neglecting Phyllis Jackson's interests in the most abominable way ever since she had come to Blandings. She had definitely promised Phyllis that she would tackle this stepfather of hers and shame him with burning words into yielding up the three thousand pounds which Phyllis needed so desperately for her Lincolnshire farm. And what had she done? Nothing. Eve was honest to the core, even in her dealings with herself. A less conscientious girl might have argued that she had had no opportunity of a private interview with Mr. Keeble. She scorned to soothe herself with this specious plea. If she had given her mind to it, she could have brought about a dozen private interviews, and she knew it. No, she had allowed the pleasant persistence of Smith to take up her time, and Phyllis and her troubles had been thrust into the background. She confessed, despising herself, that she had hardly given Phyllis a thought. And all the while this Mr. Keeble had been in a position to scatter largesse, thousands of pounds of it, to undeserving people like Freddie. Why, a word from her about Phyllis would have— Two thousand pounds, she repeated dizzily. Mr. Keeble? Absolutely, cried Freddie radiantly. The first shock of looking into her eyes had passed, and he was now reveling in that occupation. What for? Freddie's rapt gaze flickered. Love, he perceived, had nearly caused him to be indiscreet. Oh, I don't know, he mumbled.  Did you simply go to him and ask for it? Well, er, yes, that was about the strength of it. And he didn't object? No, he seemed rather pleased. Pleased? Eve found breathing difficult. She was feeling rather like a man who suddenly discovers that the hole in his backyard, which he has been passing nonchalantly for months, is a goldmine. If the operation of extracting money from Mr. Keeble was not only easy but agreeable to the victim, she became aware of a sudden imperative need for Freddie's absence. She wanted to think this thing over. Well then, said Freddie, coming back to it, will you? What? said Eve, distraught. Marry me, you know. What I mean to say is, I worship the very ground you walk on, and all that sort of rot, I mean, and all that. And now that you realize that I'm going to get this couple of thousand, and the bookie's business, and what not, I mean to say, Freddie, said Eve Tensley, expressing her harassed nerves in a voice that came hotly through clenched teeth. Go away. Eh?  Will you please go away and leave me alone?" She stopped. Her sense of fairness told her that she was working off on her hapless suitor, venom which should have been expended on herself. I'm sorry, Freddie, she said, softening. I didn't mean to be such a beast as that. I know you're awfully fond of me, but really, really, I can't marry you. You don't want to marry a girl who doesn't love you, do you? Yes, I do, said Freddie Stoutly. If it's you, I mean. Love is a tiny seed that coldness can wither, but if tended and nurtured in the fostering warmth of an honest heart, but Freddie, blossoms into a flower, concluded Freddie rapidly. What I mean to say is, love would come after the marriage. Nonsense. Well, that's the way it happened in a society mating. Freddie, said Eve, I really don't want to talk anymore. Will you be a dear and just go away? I've got a lot of thinking to do. Oh, thinking, said Freddie, impressed. Right-ho. Thank you so much. Oh, not at all. Well, pip-pip. Goodbye. See you later, what? Of course, of course. Fine. Well, toulou. And the honorable Freddie, not ill-pleased, for it seemed to him that at long last he detected signs of melting in the party of the second part, swiveled round at his long legs, and started for home. Part 3 The little town of Market Blandings was a peaceful sight as it slept in the sun. For the first time since Freddie had left her, Eve became conscious of a certain tranquility as she entered the old grey high street, which was the centre of the place's life and thought. Market Blandings had a comforting air of having been exactly the same for centuries. Troubles might vex the generations it housed, but they did not worry that likened church with its sturdy four-square tower, nor those red-roofed shops, nor the age-old inns whose second stories bulged so comfortably out over the pavements. As Eve walked in slow meditation towards the Emsworth arms, the intensely respectable hostelry, which was her objective, archways met her gaze, opening with a picturesque unexpectedness to show heartening glimpses of ancient nooks all cool and green. There was about the high street of Market Blandings a suggestion of a slumbering cathedral close. Nothing was modern in it except the moving picture-house, and even that called itself an electric theatre, and was Ivy covered and surmounted by stone gables. On second thoughts that statement is too sweeping. There was one other modern building in the high street, Janeau Banks' hairdresser, to it, and Eve was just coming abreast of Mr. Banks' Emporium now. In any ordinary surroundings these premises would have been a tolerably attractive sight, but in Market Blandings they were almost an eyesore, and Eve, finding herself at the door, was jarred out of her reverie as if she had heard a false note in a solemn anthem. She was on the point of hurrying past when the door opened and a short, solid figure came out. At the sight of this short, solid figure Eve stopped abruptly. It was with the object of getting his grizzled locks clipped in preparation for the county ball that Joseph Keeble had come to Mr. Banks' shop as soon as he had finished lunch. As he emerged now into the high street he was wondering why he had permitted Mr. Banks to finish off the job with a heliotrope-scented hair-wash. It seemed to Mr. Keeble that the air was heavy with heliotrope, and it came to him suddenly that heliotrope was a scent which he had always found particularly objectionable. Ordinarily Joseph Keeble was accustomed to show an iron front to the hairdressers who tried to inflict lotions upon him, and the reason his vigilance had relaxed under the administrations of Janeau Banks was that the second post, which arrived at the castle at the lunch and hour, had brought him a plaintive letter from his step-daughter Phyllis, the second he had had from her since the one which had caused him to tackle his masterful wife in the smoking-room. Immediately after the conclusion of his business deal with the Honorable Freddie, he had written to Phyllis in a vein of optimism rendered glowing by Freddie's promises, assuring her that at any moment he would be in a position to send her the three thousand pounds which she required to clinch the purchase of that dream-farm in Lincolnshire. To this she had replied with thanks, and after that there had been a lapse of days, and still he had not made good. Phyllis was becoming worried, and said so in six closely written pages. Mr. Keeble, as he sat in the barber's chair going over this letter in his mind, had groaned in spirit, while J. Noe Banks with the gleaming eye did practically what he liked with the heliotrope bottle. Not for the first time since the formation of their partnership, Joseph Keeble was tormented with doubts as to his wisdom in entrusting a commission so delicate as the perloining of his wife's diamond necklace to one of his nephew Freddie's known feebleness of intellect. Here he told himself unhappily, was a job of work which would have tested the combined abilities of a syndicate consisting of Charles Peace and the James Brothers, and he had put it in the hands of a young man who in all his life had only once shown genuine inspiration and initiative. On the occasion when he had parted his hair in the middle, at a time when all the other members of the bachelor's club were brushing it straight back, the more Mr. Keeble thought of Freddie's chances, the slimmer they appeared. By the time J. Noe Banks had released him from the spot at Apron, he was thoroughly pessimistic, and as he passed out of the door, so perfumed that the winds were lovesick with him, his estimate of his colleagues' abilities was reduced to a point where he began to doubt whether the stealing of a mere milk-can was not beyond his scope. So deeply immersed was he in these gloomy thoughts that Eve had to call his name twice before he came out of them. Miss Halliday, he said apologetically, I beg your pardon, I was thinking. Eve, though they had hardly exchanged a word since her arrival at the castle, had taken a liking to Mr. Keeble, and she felt in consequence none of the embarrassment which might have handicapped her in the discussion of an extremely delicate matter with another man. By nature, direct and straightforward, she came to the point at once. Can you spare me a moment or two, Mr. Keeble? She said. She glanced at the clock on the church tower and saw that she had ample time before her own appointment. I want to talk to you about Phyllis. Mr.  It was as if the voice of conscience had suddenly addressed him. Phyllis, he gasped, and the letter crackled in his breast pocket. Your step-daughter Phyllis, do you know her? She was my best friend at school. I had tea with her just before I came to the castle. Extraordinary said Mr. Keeble. A customer in quest of a shave thrust himself between them and went into the shop. They moved away a few paces. Of course, if you say it is none of my business. My dear lady! Well, it is my business, because she's my friend, said Eve firmly. Mr. Keeble, Phyllis told me she had written to you about buying that farm. Why don't you help her? The afternoon was warm, but not warm enough to account for the moistness of Mr. Keeble's brow. He drew out a large handkerchief and mopped his forehead.  The hand which was not occupied with the handkerchief had sought his pocket and was busy rattling keys. I want to help her. I would do anything in the world to help her. Then why don't you? I am curiously situated. Yes, Phyllis told me something about that. I can see that it is a difficult position for you. But Mr. Keeble, surely, surely if you could manage to give Freddie Threepwood 2,000 pounds to start a bookmaker's business, her words were cut short by a strangled cry from her companion. Sheer panic was in his eyes now, and in his heart an overwhelming regret that he had ever been full enough to dabble in crime in the company of a mere animated talking machine like his nephew, Freddie. This girl knew. And if she knew, how many others knew? The young imbecile had probably babbled his hideous secret into the ears of every human being in the place who would listen to him. He told you? He stammered? He told you? Yes, just now. Gosh, muttered Mr. Keeble brokenly. Eve stared at him in surprise. She could not understand this emotion. The handkerchief, after a busy session, was lowered now, and he was looking at her imploringly. You haven't told anyone? He croaked hoarsely. Of course not. I said I had only heard of it just now. You wouldn't tell anyone? Why should I? Mr. Keeble's breath, which had seemed to him for a moment gone forever, began to return timidly. Relief for a space held him dumb. What nonsense, he reflected, these newspapers and people talked about the modern girl. It was this very broad-mindedness of hers to which they objected so absurdly that made her a creature of such charm. She might behave in certain ways in a fashion that would have shocked her grandmother, but how comforting it was to find her calm and unmoved in the contemplation of another's crime. His heart warmed to Eve. You're wonderful, he said. What do you mean? Of course, argued Mr. Keeble. It isn't really stealing. What? I shall buy my wife another necklace. You will what? So everything will be all right. Constance will be perfectly happy and Phyllis will have her money Something in Eve's astonished gaze seemed to smite Mr. Keeble. Don't you know, he broke off? No, know what? Mr. Keeble perceived that he had wronged Freddie.  An oyster-like reserve came upon him. And nothing, nothing, he said hastily. Forget what I was going to say. Well, I must be going, I must be going. Eve clutched wildly at his retreating sleeve. Unintelligible though his words had been, one sentence had come home to her, the one about Phyllis having her money. It was no time for half-measures. She grabbed him. Mr. Keeble, she cried urgently. I don't know what you mean, but you were just going to say something which sounded, Mr. Keeble do trust me. I'm Phyllis's best friend, and if you've thought out any way of helping her, I wish you would tell me. You must tell me, I might be able to help. Mr. Keeble, as she began her broken speech, had been endeavouring with deprecatory tugs to disengage his coat from her grasp. But now he ceased to struggle. Those doubts of Freddie's efficiency, which had troubled him in Janeau's bank's chair, still lingered. His opinion that Freddie was but a broken reed had not changed. Indeed, it had grown. He looked at Eve. He looked at her searchingly. Into her pleading eyes he directed a stare that sought to probe her soul, and saw there honesty, sympathy, and, better still, intelligence. He might have stood and gazed into Freddie's fishy eyes for weeks without discovering a tithe of such intelligence. His mind was made up. This girl was an ally. A girl of dash and vigor. A girl worth a thousand Freddie's. Not, however, reflected Mr. Keeble, that that was saying much. He hesitated no longer. It's like this, said Mr. Keeble. Part 4 The information authoritatively conveyed to him during breakfast by Lady Constance that he was scheduled that night to read select passages from Ralston McTodd's Songs of Squalor to the entire house-party assembled in the big drawing-room had come as a complete surprise to Smith and to his fellow guests, such of them as were young and of the soulless sex, as a shock from which they found it hard to rally. True, they had before and now gathered in a vague sort of way that he was one of those literary fellows, but so normal and engaging had they found his whole manner and appearance that it had never occurred to them that he concealed anything up his sleeve as lethal as Songs of Squalor. Among these members of the younger set the consensus of opinion was that it was a bit thick and that at such a price even the lavish hospitality of blandings was scarcely worth having. Only those who had visited the castle before during the era of her ladyship's flirtation with art could have been described as resigned. These stout-hearts argued that while this latest blister was probably going to be pretty bad he could hardly be worse than the chappy who had lectured on Theosophy last November and must almost of necessity be better than the bird who during the shiftly race week had attempted in a two-hour discourse to convert them to vegetarianism. Smith himself regarded the coming ordeal with equanimity. He was not one of those whom the prospect of speaking in public afflicts with nervous horror. He liked the sound of his own voice and night, when it came, found him calm and cheerful. He listened contentedly to the murmur of the drawing-room filling up as he strolled on the starlet terrace smoking a last cigarette before duty called him elsewhere. And when, some few yards away, seated on the terrace wall gazing out into the velvet darkness, he perceived Eve holiday. His sense of well-being became acute. All day he had been conscious of a growing desire for another of those cozy chats with Eve which had done so much to make life agreeable for him during his stay at Blandings. Her prejudice, which he deplored, in favour of doing a certain amount of work to justify her salary, had kept him during the morning away from the little room off the library where she was want to sit cataloging books. And when he had gone there after lunch he had found it empty. As he approached her now he was thinking pleasantly of all those delightful walks, those excellent driftings on the lake and those cheery conversations which had gone to cement his conviction that of all possible girls she was the only possible one. It seemed to him that in addition to being beautiful she brought out all that was best in him of intellect and soul. That is to say she let him talk oftener and longer than any girl he had ever known. It struck him as a little curious that she made no move to greet him. She remained apparently unaware of his approach and yet the summer night was not of such density as to hide him from view and even if she could not see him she must undoubtedly have hurt him for only a moment before he had tripped with some violence over a large flowerpot, one of a row of sixteen which Angus McAllister, doubtless for some good purpose had placed in the fairway that afternoon.  Yes, she said her manner was not effusive but Smith persevered. The stars, he proceeded indicating them with a kindly yet not patronizing wave of the hand bright, twinkling and, if I may say so rather neatly arranged. When I was a mere lad someone whose name I cannot recollect taught me which was Orion. Also Mars, Venus and Jupiter. This thoroughly useless chunk of knowledge has, I am happy to say long since passed from my mind. However, I am in a position to state that that wiggly thing up there with a little to the right is King Charles's wane. Yes? Yes indeed, I assure you. It struck Smith that astronomy was not gripping his audience so he tried travel. I hear, he said you went to market blandings this afternoon. Yes. An attractive settlement? Yes. There was a pause. Smith removed his monocle and polished it thoughtfully. The summer night seemed to him to have taken on a touch of chill. What I like about the English rural districts he went on is that when the authorities have finished building a place they stop. Somewhere about the reign of Henry VIII I imagine that the master Mason gave the final house a pat with his trowel and said, well, boys, that's market blandings. To which his assistants no doubt assented with many a hearty grammarcy and eye-fackums. These being expletives to which they were much addicted. And they went away and left it and nobody has touched it since. And I, for one, thoroughly approve. I think it makes the place soothing. Don't you? Yes. As far as the darkness would permit Smith subjected Eve to an inquiring glance through his monocle. This was a strange new mood in which he had found her. Hitherto, though she had always endeared herself to him by permitting him the major portion of the dialogue, they had usually split conversations on at least a seventy-five twenty-five basis. And though it gratified Smith to be allowed to deliver a monologue when talking with most people, he found Eve more companionable when in a slightly chattier vein. Are you coming in to hear me read, he asked? No. It was a change from yes, but that was the best that could be said of it. A good deal of discouragement to damp Smith, but he could not help feeling a slight diminuation of buoyancy. However, he kept on trying. You show your usual sterling good sense, he said approvingly. A scalier method of passing the scented summer night could hardly be hit upon. He abandoned the topic of the reading. It did not grip. That was manifest. It lacked appeal. This afternoon, too, he said.  Not being able to find you, I turned in for half an hour at the local moving picture palace. They were showing episode eleven of a serial. It concluded with the heroine, kidnapped by Indians, stretched on the sacrificial altar with the high priest making passes at her with a knife. A rather nasty precipice on his way to the rescue.  Episode twelve next week. Eve looked out into the night without speaking. I'm afraid it won't end happily, said Smith with a sigh. I think he'll save her. Eve turned on him with a menacing abruptness. Shall I tell you why I went to market landings in the afternoon, she said. Do, said Smith cordially. It is not for me to criticize, but as a matter of fact I was rather wondering when you were going to begin telling me all about your adventures. I have been monopolizing the conversation. I went to meet Cynthia. Smith's monocle fell out of his eye and swung jerkily on its cord. He was not easily disconcerted, but this unexpected piece of information coming on top of her peculiar manner undoubtedly jarred him. He first saw difficulties and once again found himself thinking hard thoughts of this confounded female who kept bobbing up when least expected. How simple life would have been, he mused wistfully, had Ralston Mac Todd only had the good sense to remain a bachelor. Oh, Cynthia, he said. Yes, Cynthia, said Eve. The inconvenient Mrs. Mac Todd possessed a Christian name admirably adapted for being hissed between clenched teeth and Eve hissed it in this fashion now. It became evident to Smith that the dear girl was in a condition of hardly suppressed fury and that trouble was coming his way. He braced himself to meet it. Directly after we had that talk on the lake the day I arrived continued Eve tersely. I wrote to Cynthia, telling her to come here at once and meet me at the Emsworth Arms. In the high street, said Smith, I know it, good beer. What? I said they sell good beer. Never mind about the beer, cried Eve. Oh, no, no, I merely mentioned it in passing. At lunch today I got a letter from her saying that she would be there this afternoon. I hurried off. I wanted— Eve laughed a hollow, mirthless laugh of a calibre which even the honourable Freddie Threepwood would have found beyond his powers and he was a specialist. I wanted to try to bring you two together. I thought that if I could see her and have a talk with her that you might become reconciled. Smith, though obsessed with a disquieting feeling that he was fighting in the last ditch, pulled himself together sufficiently to pat her hand as it lay beside him on the wall like some white and fragile flower. That was like you, he murmured. That was an act worthy of your great heart. But I fear that the rift between Cynthia and myself has reached such dimensions. Eve drew her hand away. She swung round and the battery of her indignant gaze raked him furiously. I saw Cynthia, she said, and she told me that her husband was in Paris. Now, how in the world said Smith, struggling bravely but with a growing sense that they were coming over the plate a bit too fast for him. How in the world did she get an idea like that? Do you really want to know? I do indeed. Then I'll tell you. She got the idea because she had had a letter from him begging her to join him there. She had just finished telling me this when I caught sight of you from the inn window, walking along the high street. I pointed you out to Cynthia and she said she had never seen you before in her life. Women soon forget, sighed Smith. The only excuse I can find for you, stormed Eve in a vibrant undertone necessitated by the fact that somebody had just emerged from the castle door and they no longer had the terrace to themselves. Is that your mad? When I think of all you said to me about poor Cynthia on the lake that afternoon, when I think of all the sympathy I wasted on you, not wasted, corrected Smith firmly, it was by no means wasted. It made me love you, if possible, even more. Eve had supposed that she embarked on a tirade which would last until she had worked off her indignation and felt composed again. But this extraordinary remark scattered the thread of her harangue so hopelessly that all she could do was to stare at him in amazed silence. Womanly intuition proceeded Smith gravely. We'll have told you long ere this that I love you with a fervor which with my poor vocabulary I cannot hope to express. True, as you are about to say, we have known each other but a short time as time is measured. But what of that? Eve raised her eyebrows. Her voice was cold and hostile. After what has happened, she said, I suppose I ought not to be surprised at finding you capable of anything, but are you really choosing this moment to—to propose to me? To employ a favourite word of your own? Yes. And you expect me to take you seriously? Assuredly not. I look upon the present disclosure purely as a sighting shot. You may regard it, if you will, as a kind of formal proclamation. I wish simply to go on record as an aspirant to your hand. I want you, if you will be so good, to make a note of my words and give them a thought time to time. As Comrade Coots, a young friend of mine whom you have not yet met would say, chew on them. I— it is possible, continued Smith, that black moments will come to you for they come to all of us even the sunniest. When you will find yourself saying, nobody loves me, on such occasions I should like you to add, no, I am wrong, there is somebody who loves me. At first it may be that reflection will bring but scant balm. Gradually, however, as the days go by and we are constantly together and my nature unfolds itself before you like the petals of some timid flower beneath the rays of the sun, Eve's eyes opened wider. She had supposed herself incapable of further astonishment but she saw that she had been mistaken. You surely aren't dreaming of staying on here now, she gasped. Most decidedly, why not? But what is to prevent me telling everybody that you are not Mr. McTodd?  Oh! Considering that I only came here as McTodd and if you had seen him you would realize he is not a person for whom the man of sensibility and refinement would likely allow himself to be mistaken. I say, considering that I only took on the job of understudy, so as to get to the castle and be near you, I hardly think that you will be able to bring yourself to get me slung out. You must try to understand what happened. When Lord Emsworth started chatting with me under the impression that I was comrade McTodd, I encouraged the mistake purely with the kindly intention of putting him at his ease. Even when he informed me that he was expecting me to come down to Blandings with him on the five o'clock train, it never occurred to me to do so. It was only when I saw you talking to him in the street and he revealed the fact that you were about to enjoy his hospitality that I decided that there was no other course open to the man of spirit.  May I say, taking the sunshine with you? And I began to fear you might pass out of it forever. So, loathe though I was to commit the solicism of planting myself in this happy home under false pretenses, I could see no other way. And here I am. You must be mad. Well, as I was saying, the days will go by you will have ample opportunity of studying my personality, and it is quite possible that in due season the love of an honest heart may impress you as worth having. I may add that I have loved you since the moment I saw you sheltering from the rain under that awning in Dover Street, and I recall saying as much to comrade Walderwick when he was chatting with me some short time later on the subject of his umbrella. I do not press you for an answer now. I should hope not. I merely say, think it over.  Other men love you. Freddie Threepwood loves you. Just add me to the list. That is all I ask. Muse on me from time to time. Reflect that I may be an acquired taste. You probably did not like olives the first time you tasted them. Now you probably do. Give me the same chance you would an olive. Consider also how little you actually have against me. What indeed does it amount to when you come to examine it narrowly?  Think how comparatively few people are Ralston Mac Todd.  Everybody is waiting, Mr. Mac Todd said the efficient Baxter. He spoke the name as always with a certain sardonic emphasis. Of course said Smith affably. Of course. I was forgetting. I will get to work at once. You are quite sure you do not wish to hear a scuttleful of modern poetry, Miss Halliday? Quite sure. And yet even now so our genial friend here informs us a bevy of youth and beauty is crowding the drawing room, a gog for the treat. Well, well, it is these strange clashings of personal taste which constitute what we call life. I think I will write a poem about it some day. Come, Comrade Baxter, let us be up and doing. I must not disappoint my public. For some moments after the two had left her Baxter, silent and chilly Smith, all debonair chumminous kneading the other's arm and pointing out as they went objects of interest by the wayside Eve remained on the terrace wall thinking. She was laughing now, but behind her amusement there was another feeling and one that perplexed her. A good many men had proposed to her in the course of her career, but none of them had ever left her with this odd feeling of exhilaration. Smith was different from any other man who had come her way and difference was a quality which Eve esteemed. She had just reached the conclusion that life for whatever girl might eventually decide to risk it in Smith's company would never be dull when strange doings in her immediate neighborhood roused her from her meditations. The thing happened as she rose from her seat on the wall and started to cross the terrace on her way to the front door. She had stopped for an instant beneath the huge open window of the drawing room to listen to what was going on inside. Faintly, with something of the quality of a far-off photograph the sound of Smith reading came to her, and even at this distance there was a composed blandness about his voice which brought a smile to her lips. And then, with a startling abruptness, the lighted window was dark, and she was aware that all the lighted windows on that side of the castle had suddenly become dark. The lamp that shone over the great door ceased to shine, and above the hubbub of voices in the drawing room she heard Smith's patient growl. Ladies and gentlemen, I think the lights have gone out. The night air was rent by a single piercing scream, something flashed like a shooting star and fell at her feet, and stooping, Eve found in her hands Lady Constant Keeble's Diamond Necklace. Part 5 To be prepared is everything in this life. Ever since her talk with Mr. Joseph Keeble on the high street of market blandings that afternoon, Eve's mind had been flitting nimbly from one scheme to another, all designed to end in this very act of seizing the necklace in her hands, and each rendered impracticable by some annoying flaw. And now that fate in its impulsive way had achieved for her what she had begun to feel she could never accomplish for herself, she wasted no time in bewildered in action. And the miracle found her ready for it. For an instant she debated with herself the chances of a dash through the darkened hall up the stairs to her room, but the lights might go on again and she might meet someone. Memories of sensational novels read in the past told her that on occasions such as this people were detained and searched. Suddenly as she stood there she found the way. Close beside her, lying on its side the flowerpot which Smith had overturned as he came to join her on the terrace wall. It might have defects as a cache, but at the moment she could perceive none. Most flowerpots are alike, but this was a particularly easily remembered flowerpot, for in its journeying from the potting shed to the terrace, it had acquired on its side a splash of white paint. She would be able to distinguish it from its fellows when late that night out to retrieve the spoil. And surely nobody would ever think of suspecting she plunged her fingers into the soft mould and straightened herself, breathing quickly. It was not an ideal piece of work, but it would serve. She rubbed her fingers on the turf, put the flowerpot back in the row with the others, and then like a flying white phantom darted across the terrace and into the house. And so with beating heart, groped her way to the bathroom to wash her hands. The twenty thousand pound flowerpot looked placidly up at the winking stars. Part 6 It was perhaps two minutes later that Mr. Coots, sprinting lustily, rounded the corner of the house and burst onto the terrace, late as usual. End of Chapter 10