Love counts, but money counts more

     "Does love count for nothing? Surely you love me?"

    "Of course I do, my desert king. When you do that flat-footed Black Bottom step with the sort of wiggly twiggle at the end, I feel as if I were eating plovers' eggs in a new dress to the accompaniment of heavenly music." She sighed. "Yes, I love you, Lancelot. And women are not like men. They do not love lightly. When a woman gives her heart, it is for ever. The years will pass, and you will turn to another. But I shall not forget. However, as you haven't a bob in the world - " She beckoned to the hall-porter. "Margerison."

    "Your ladyship?"

    "Are the front steps clean?"

    "Yes, your ladyship."

    "Then throw Mr. Mulliner out."

(from Meet Mr. Mulliner, by Sir Pelham Wodehouse)

Odd-looking, what?

 Lancelot found himsel in a small, comfortably-furnished room, confronting a dignified-looking old man with a patrician nose and small side-whiskers, who looked like something that long ago had come out of an egg.

(from Meet Mr. Mulliner, by Sir Pelham Wodehouse)

Advertising genius

Soon, soon all human joys must end:

Grim Death approaches with his sickle;

Courage! There is still time, my friend,

To eat a Briggs's Breakfast Pickle.

(from Meet Mr. Mulliner, by Sir Pelham Wodehouse)

But what is your name?

     "Marry you?" said the girl.

    "I love you as no man has ever loved woman before."

    "Well, that's always something. What would the name be?"

    "Mulliner. Lancelot Mulliner."

    "It might be worse."

(from Meet Mr. Mulliner, by Sir Pelham Wodehouse)

Gimp

     A girl like that - beautiful, lissom, and - as far as he had been able to tell at such a long range - gimp, was sure to be fond of dancing. The chances were, therefore, that sooner or later he would find her at some night club or other.

    He started, accordingly, to make the round of the night clubs. As soon as one was raided, he went on to another. Within a month he had visited the Mauve Mouse, the Scarlet Centipede, the Vicious Cheese, the Gay Fritter, the Placid Prune, the Cafe de Blogna, Billy's, Milly's, Ike's, Spike's, Mike's and the Ham and Beef. And it was at the Ham and Beef that at last he found her.

(from Meet Mr. Mulliner, by Sir Pelham Wodehouse)

You will note above the word gimp. Given that is has a number of meanings, among them those that are crude and offensive, I will explain that when this book was first printed (1927), it would have had the meaning of "spirit" or "vim," or in this case the adjective forms of those words. (The Roaring Twenties were noted for their colorful slang expressions.)

But not pickles

     At the tine at which my story opens (said Mr. Mulliner) Lancelot, then twenty-four years of age and recently come down from Oxford, was spending a few days with old Jeremiah Briggs, the founder and proprietor of the famous Briggs' Breakfast Pickles, on the latter's yacht at Cowes.

    This Jeremiah Briggs was Lancelot's uncle on the mother's side, and he had always interested himself in the boy. It was he who had sent him to the University; and it was the great wish of his heart that his nephew, on completing his education, should join him in the business. It was consequently a shock to the poor old gentleman when, as they sat together on deck on the first morning of the visit, Lancelot, while expressing the greatest respect for pickles as a class, firmly refused to start in and learn the business from the bottom up.

(from Meet Mr. Mulliner, by Sir Pelham Wodehouse)

Big Chief Bloodenough

 General Sir Hector Bloodenough, V. C., K. C. I. E., M.V.O., on retiring from the army, had been for many years, until his final return to England, in charge of the Secret Service in Western Africa, where his unerring acumen had won for him from the natives the soubriquet of Wah-nah-B'gosh-B'jingo - which, freely translated, means Big Chief Who Can See Thrugh The Hole In A Doughnut.

(from Meet Mr. Mulliner, by Sir Pelham Wodehouse)

Cheery outlook

 Now you, who have listened to the story of Augustine's previous adventures with the Buck-U-Uppo, are aware that my brother Wilfred invented it primarily with the object of providing Indian Rajahs with a specific which would encourage their elephants to face the tiger of the jungle with a jaunty sanfroid: and he had advocated as a medium dose for an adult elephant a teaspoonful stirred up with its morning bran-mash. It is not surprising, therefore, that after they had drunk two wine-glassfuls apiece of the mixture the outlook on life of both the bishop and the headmaster began to undergo a marked change.

(from Meet Mr. Mulliner, by Sir Pelham Wodehouse)

Wideawake hat

 In the P. G. Wodehouse book, "Meet Mr. Mulliner," we find the term wideawake, referring to a style of hat. According to Wikipedia, it is "a broad brimmed felt 'countryman's hat' with a low crown, similar to a slouch hat. A wideawake hat is most commonly seen in dark shades of cloth, such as dark brown or black felt. The brim is fairly wide, and is flat in front and back but with a moderate upturn on the left and right sides."