Bertie Wooster And Reginald Jeeves, The Vatican Way

Say what you want, but he could pick his own Jeeves.

 

Perhaps not very interesting abroad (or not, as the case may be) but the Corriere has the story of the presumed talpa (the Germans say it in the same way: Maulwurf; that is: mole) within the Vatican. That would be no one else than the Pope’s valet.

I feel as if I were reading a P.G. Wodehouse novel in which it turns out Jeeves sold Bertie, and I mean really sold him, for vile money.

Still, we must on these occasions reflect that such scandals, when they happen, do not reflect very well on the person who had so spectacularly misplaced his trust. Even Bertie Wooster knew he could entirely trust Jeeves, and knew Jeeves would never have had the possibility of operating as Jeeves without having the full confidence of his friend and employer.

In our case, we still do not know whether Mr Gabriele was the one who gave information to the press, but apparently he was caught red-handed with extensive information he should not have had anyway.

O for a world where you can trust your Wooster to select your Jeeves. If a Wooster cannot select his own Jeeves – a person with whom he lives in strict contact every day; the first he talks to in the morning and the last he talks to before going to sleep; the one who shares with him unofficial meals; certainly a person of some confidence, and in an unofficial way of some influence, though certainly not nearly as much as the “real” Jeeves   – how probable will it be that he makes even worse mistakes when selecting Bishops and Cardinals, and the people he listens to?

Mundabor