Time Machinations
Location: 27 Butcher Street, #2
Characters: R. Psmith, Ianto Jones
Status: Private
Rating: B for Bees, political organization thereof
Summary: Did you know Ianto's from about six months hence? The implications of this for an enterprising young man who knows a bookmaker should be obvious.
Psmith was, for all his studied lethargy, an enterprising young man in his way. His curiosity may have been quite satiable and his manner more exquisite than inquisitive, but he nevertheless possessed a mind like a steel trap -- rusty and full of bears? No, no, no. Let's try again without the similes.
If Marlowe's decision to hire and keep on a secretary who was too lazy to actually perform secretarial duties (the verb form of "secretary" would appear to be "secrete," and so we shan't use it) was based on anything other than admiration of his figure and a perverse fascination with English accents (which, in point of fact, it was - behaviour at the Yule Ball and continued teasing based thereupon notwithstanding), it was at least partially based on Psmith's ability to absorb all manner of information like a sloth absorbing a bit of grog-soaked ship's biscuit, without apparent effort and, in fact, without paying apparent attention. He would then trot out his little mental acquisitions when it seemed convenient, preferably to his own profit and to the consternation of those who'd rather thought him to be completely caught up in a monologue on the topic of the likely political structures adhered to by various members of the phlyum Arthropoda, etc. (Bees, for example, are a monarchy whose workers have been successfully convinced they are communist. It's the absolute best scheme.)
It was the result of one of these - not discreet lines of inquiry, but discreet lines of listening - which had caused him to form his current Clever Scheme.
The extent of the action he was willing to undertake was to appear in the hallway of 27 Butcher Street, top floor, and lounge against the far wall, tapping on Comrade Jones' door with the ubiquitous walking-stick.
Characters: R. Psmith, Ianto Jones
Status: Private
Rating: B for Bees, political organization thereof
Summary: Did you know Ianto's from about six months hence? The implications of this for an enterprising young man who knows a bookmaker should be obvious.
Psmith was, for all his studied lethargy, an enterprising young man in his way. His curiosity may have been quite satiable and his manner more exquisite than inquisitive, but he nevertheless possessed a mind like a steel trap -- rusty and full of bears? No, no, no. Let's try again without the similes.
If Marlowe's decision to hire and keep on a secretary who was too lazy to actually perform secretarial duties (the verb form of "secretary" would appear to be "secrete," and so we shan't use it) was based on anything other than admiration of his figure and a perverse fascination with English accents (which, in point of fact, it was - behaviour at the Yule Ball and continued teasing based thereupon notwithstanding), it was at least partially based on Psmith's ability to absorb all manner of information like a sloth absorbing a bit of grog-soaked ship's biscuit, without apparent effort and, in fact, without paying apparent attention. He would then trot out his little mental acquisitions when it seemed convenient, preferably to his own profit and to the consternation of those who'd rather thought him to be completely caught up in a monologue on the topic of the likely political structures adhered to by various members of the phlyum Arthropoda, etc. (Bees, for example, are a monarchy whose workers have been successfully convinced they are communist. It's the absolute best scheme.)
It was the result of one of these - not discreet lines of inquiry, but discreet lines of listening - which had caused him to form his current Clever Scheme.
The extent of the action he was willing to undertake was to appear in the hallway of 27 Butcher Street, top floor, and lounge against the far wall, tapping on Comrade Jones' door with the ubiquitous walking-stick.