"Did I ever tell you the story of Clarence ad the Arkwright wedding?"
"I don't think so."
"Odd It happened about the time I was a regular client of yours at the Criterion and I told it to everybody else. I wonder why I discriminated against you. The Arkwrights lived out Bridgnorth way, and their daughter Amelia was getting married, so Clarence tied a knot in his handkerchief to remind him to send the bride's mother a telegram on the happy day."
"And he forgot?"
"Oh, no, he sent it. 'My heartfelt congratulations to you on this joyous occasion,' he said."
"Well, wasn't that all right?"
"It was fine. Couldn't have been improved upon. Only the trouble was that in one of his distrait moments he sent it, not to Mrs. Arkwright but to another friend of his, a Mrs. Cartwright, and her husband had happened to die that morning. Diabetes. Very sad. We were all very sorry about it, but no doubt the telegram cheered her up."
(from Pigs Have Wings, by Sir Pelham Wodehouse)
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