*    *    *    *    *

Psmith's attitude towards the slings and arrows of outrageous Fortune
was to regard them with a bland smile, as if they were part of an
entertainment got up for his express benefit.

*    *    *    *    *

He was not old enough to know what a narcotic is Habit, and that one
can become atttached to and interested in the most unpromising jobs.

*    *    *    *    *

"Am I mistaken," said Psmith to Mike, "or is there the merest suspicion
of a worried look on our chief's face? It seems to me that there is the
slightest soupÆon of shadow about that broad, calm brow."

*    *    *    *    *

Mr. Bickersdyke sat in his private room at the New Asiatic Bank
with a pile of newspapers before him. At least, the casual observer
would have said it was Mr. Bickersdyke. In reality, however, it was
an active volcano in the shape and clothes of the bank-manager.

*    *    *    *    *

...the humour of the thing appeared to elude Mike, though the mode
of address always drew from Psmith a pale, wan smile, as of a
broken heart made cheerful against its own inclination.

*    *    *    *    *

Beside him Mike was oppressed by that leaden sense of inferiority
which weighs on a man who has turned up to dinner in ordinary clothes
when everybody else has dressed.

*    *    *    *    *

Psmith called for the bill and paid it in the affable manner
of a monarch signing a charter.

*    *    *    *    *