‘I should like to say,’ continued Psmith, ‘how much Comrade Jackson and I have enjoyed our stay in the bank. The insight it has given us into your masterly handling of the intricate mechanism of the office has been a treat we would not have missed. But our place is elsewhere.’
He rose. Mike followed his example with alacrity. It occurred to Mr Bickersdyke, as they turned to go, that he had not yet been able to get in a word about their dismissal. They were drifting away with all the honours of war.
‘Come back,’ he cried.
Psmith paused and shook his head sadly.
‘This is unmanly, Comrade Bickersdyke,’ he said. ‘I had not expected this. That you should be dazed by the shock was natural. But that you should beg us to reconsider our resolve and return to the bank is unworthy of you. Be a man. Bite the bullet. The first keen pang will pass. Time will soften the feeling of bereavement. You must be brave. Come, Comrade Jackson.’
Mike responded to the call without hesitation.
‘We will now,’ said Psmith, leading the way to the door, ‘push back to the flat. My father will be round there soon.’ He looked over his shoulder. Mr Bickersdyke appeared to be wrapped in thought.
‘A painful business,’ sighed Psmith. ‘The man seems quite broken up. It had to be, however. The bank was no place for us. An excellent career in many respects, but unsuitable for you and me. It is hard on Comrade Bickersdyke, especially as he took such trouble to get me into it, but I think we may say that we are well out of the place.’
Mike’s mind roamed into the future. Cambridge first, and then an open-air life of the sort he had always dreamed of. The Problem of Life seemed to him to be solved. He looked on down the years, and he could see no troubles there of any kind whatsoever. Reason suggested that there were probably one or two knocking about somewhere, but this was no time to think of them. He examined the future, and found it good.
‘I should jolly well think,’ he said simply, ‘that we might.’
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