Sir Roderick Comes to Lunch

"Sir Roderick Comes to Lunch"
1922 Cosmopolitan illustration by T. D. Skidmore
Author	P. G. Wodehouse
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Series	Jeeves
Genre(s)	Comedy
Publisher	The Strand Magazine
Media type	Print (Magazine)
Publication date	March 1922
Preceded by	"Scoring off Jeeves"
Followed by	"Jeeves and the Chump Cyril"

"Sir Roderick Comes to Lunch" (also published as "Jeeves the Blighter") is a short story by P. G. Wodehouse, and features the young gentleman Bertie Wooster and his valet Jeeves. The story was published in The Strand Magazine in London in March 1922, and then in Cosmopolitan in New York in April 1922. The story was also included in the 1923 collection The Inimitable Jeeves as two separate chapters, "Introducing Claude and Eustace" and "Sir Roderick Comes to Lunch".

Bertie has been unhappily engaged for two weeks to Honoria Glossop. He lunches with Honoria, and with his approving Aunt Agatha. Honoria dislikes Jeeves and tells Bertie to rid of him. Bertie tries to object, but Aunt Agatha agrees.

After Honoria leaves, Aunt Agatha tells Bertie that Honoria's father, Sir Roderick Glossop, a so-called nerve specialist and a serious-minded man, wants to verify that Bertie is psychologically normal; therefore, Bertie must give Sir Roderick lunch the next day and behave well. Off-handedly, Aunt Agatha adds that Bertie's cousins, the twins Claude and Eustace, hope to be elected soon to a college club called The Seekers.

The next day, Bertie walks in the park, where he is greeted by Eustace, Claude, and their friend Lord "Dog-Face" Rainsby. Bertie realizes he is late for lunch with Sir Roderick and returns home to find that Sir Roderick has not yet arrived and Jeeves has prepared the lunch. The bell rings.

Bertie and Sir Roderick eat lunch. Sir Roderick, who detests cats, hears a cat nearby. He complains that a hat that was stolen from him earlier, then hears a cat again. Bertie rings for Jeeves to come and explain the noise. Jeeves answers that there are three cats in Bertie's bedroom, and they are noisy because they found the fish being kept under the bed. Sir Roderick is shocked, and moves to leave. When Bertie offers to follow Sir Roderick, Jeeves hands Bertie a hat, which is too big for him; it is Sir Roderick's stolen hat. Aghast, Sir Roderick takes the hat and exits, asking Jeeves to follow and tell him more about Bertie. The cats run out and leave.