Jeeves was at my side, but whereas I had selected Number One as my objective, his intention was to push on to Number Two. I would then give Number Three the treatment, while he did the same to Number Four. Talking it over, we had decided that if we made it a double act and blew into a house together, it might give the occupant the impression that he was receiving a visit from the plain clothes police and excite him unduly. Many of the men who live in places like River Row have a tendency to apoplectic fits as the result of high living, and a voter expiring on the floor from shock means a voter less on the voting list. One has to think of these things.
‘What beats me, Jeeves,’ I said, for I was in thoughtful mood, ‘is why people don’t object to somebody they don’t know from Adam muscling into their homes without a… without a what? It’s on the tip of my tongue.’
‘A With-your-leave or a By-your leave, sir?’
‘That’s right. Without a With-your-leave or a By-your-leave and telling them which way to vote. Taking a liberty, it strikes me as.’
‘It is the custom at election time, sir. Custom reconciles us to everything, a wise man once said.’
‘Shakespeare?’
‘Burke, sir. You will find the apothegm in his On The Sublime And Beautiful. I think the electors, conditioned by many years of canvassing, would be disappointed if nobody called on them.’
‘So we shall be bringing a ray of sunshine into their drab lives?’
‘Something on that order, sir.’
‘Well, you may be right. Have you ever done this sort of thing before?’
‘Once or twice, sir, before I entered your employment.’
‘What were your methods?’
‘I outlined as briefly as possible the main facets of my argument, bade my auditors goodbye, and withdrew.’
‘No preliminaries?’
‘Sir ? ‘
‘You didn’t make a speech of any sort before getting down to brass tacks? No mention of Burke or Shakespeare or the poet Burns?’
‘No, sir. It might have caused exasperation.’
I disagreed with him. I felt that he was on the wrong track altogether and couldn’t expect anything in the nature of a triumph at Number Two. There is probably nothing a voter enjoys more than hearing the latest about Burke and his On The Sublime And Beautiful, and here he was, deliberately chucking away the advantages his learning gave him. I had half a mind to draw his attention to the Parable of the Talents, with which I had become familiar when doing research for that Scripture Knowledge prize I won at school. Time, however, was getting along, so I passed it up. But I told him I thought he was mistaken. Preliminaries, I maintained, were of the essence. Breaking the ice is what it’s called. I mean, you can’t just barge in on a perfect stranger and get off the mark with an abrupt ‘Hoy there. I hope you’re going to vote for my candidate I ‘ How much better to say ‘Good morning, sir. I can see at a glance that you are a man of culture, probably never happier than when reading your Burke. I wonder if you are familiar with his On The Sublime And Beautiful?’. Then away you go, off to a nice start.
‘You must have an approach,’ I said. ‘I myself am all for the jolly, genial. I propose, on meeting my householder, to begin with a jovial “Hullo there, Mr. Whatever-it-is, hullo there”, thus ingratiating myself with him from the kick-off. I shall then tell him a funny story. Then, and only then, will I get to the nub ,– waiting, of course, till he has stopped laughing. I can’t fail.’
‘I am sure you will not, sir. The system would not suit me, but it is merely a matter of personal taste.’
‘The psychology of the individual, what? ‘
‘Precisely, sir. By different methods different men excel.’
‘Burke?’
‘Charles Churchill, sir, a poet who flourished in the early eighteenth century. The words occur in his Epistle To William Hogarth.’
We halted. Cutting out a good pace, we had arrived at the door of Number One. I pressed the bell.