nce."

"Quite. But don't forget that after that it will be up to you. You will
have to haul up your slacks and give her the old oil, or my efforts will
have been in vain."

Something of his former Gawd-help-us-ness seemed to return to him. He
gasped a bit.

"That's true. What the dickens shall I say?"

I restrained my impatience with an effort. The man had been at school
with me.

"Dash it, there are hundreds of things you can say. Talk about the
sunset."

"The sunset?"

"Certainly. Half the married men you meet began by talking about the
sunset."

"But what can I say about the sunset?"

"Well, Jeeves got off a good one the other day. I met him airing the dog
in the park one evening, and he said, 'Now fades the glimmering landscape
on the sight, sir, and all the air a solemn stillness holds.' You might
use that."

"What sort of landscape?"

"Glimmering. _G_ for 'gastritis,' _l_ for 'lizard'----"

"Oh, glimmering? Yes, that's not bad. Glimmering landscape ... solemn
stillness.... Yes, I call that pretty good."

"You could then say that you have often thought that the stars are God's
daisy chain."

"But I haven't."

"I dare say not. But she has. Hand her that one, and I don't see how she
can help feeling that you're a twin soul."

"God's daisy chain?"

"God's daisy chain. And then you go on about how twilight always makes
you sad. I know you're going to say it doesn't, but on this occasion it
has jolly well got to."

"Why?"

"That's just what she will ask, and you will then have got her going.
Because you will reply that it is because yours is such a lonely life. It
wouldn't be a bad idea to give her a brief description of a typical home
evening at your Lincolnshire residence, showing how you pace the meadows
with a heavy tread."

"I generally sit indoors and listen to the wireless."

"No, you don't. You pace the meadows with a heavy tread, wishing that you
had someone to love you. And then you speak of the day when she came into
your life."

"Like a fairy princess."

"Absolutely," I said with approval. I hadn't expected such a hot one from
such a quarter. "Like a fairy princess. Nice work, Gussie."

"And then?"

"Well, after that it's easy. You say you have something you want to say
to her, and then you snap into it. I don't see how it can fail. If I were
you, I should do it in this rose garden. It is well established that
there is no sounder move than to steer the adored object into