Saturday, August 23, 2014

Oops,wrong flower!

          "I asked you to wear a pink chrysanthemum. So I could recognize you, you know."
          "I am wearing a pink chrysanthemum. I should have imagined that that was a fact that the most casual could hardly have overlooked."
          ""That thing?" The other gazed disparagingly at the flora decoration. "I thought it was some kind of cabbage. I meant one of those little what-d'you-may-call-its that people do wear in their buttonholes."
          "Carnation, possibly?"
          "Carnation! That's right!"
          Psmith removed the chrysanthemum and dropped it behind his chair. He looked at his companion reproachfully.
          "If you had studied botany at school, comrade," he said, "much misery might have been averted. I cannot begin to tell you the spiritual agony I suffered, trailing through the metropolis behind that shrub."

(from Leave It To Psmith, by Sir Pelham Wodehouse)

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