The Girl on the Boat

By P. G. Wodehouse Salty sea breezes hearken Sam Marlowe, a gallant, well-dressed young man, to adventure and romance. Bound for England aboard the ocean liner Atlantic, he encounters just that in the person of Wilhemina Bennett (“Billie” to her friends), who also happens to be the former fiancée of his cousin, Eustace (also aboard the Atlantic). Lo and behold, Wilheminina finds that same romance with Sam, her own “perfect knight.”  And all is sunshine, roses, and cozy readings of Tennyson’s Idylls of the King until Sam’s misguided “Little Imitation” at the ship’s concert results in the sundering of hearts. When the Atlantic docks, Sam and Billie go their separate ways. True to form, Wodehouse leaves no stone unturned, no legal avenue unexplored, and no cupboard unoccupied as his hilarious prose sails the story toward its hilarious conclusion, promising on every page bon voyage. And so, calm and golden, the days went by, each fraught with hope and youth and sweetness, linking two youn