Welcome to the final episode of this weekend's Tale for Our Time - a Scott Fitzgerald short story that's been a favourite of mine since my teens. As the concluding episode of The Rubber Check begins, Val Schuyler is momentarily flush:
Regard him on a spring morning in London in the year 1930. Tall, even stately, he treads down Pall Mall as if it were his personal pasture. He meets an American friend and shakes hands, and the friend notices how his shirt sleeve fits his wrist, and his coat sleeve incases his shirt sleeve like a sleeve valve; how his collar and tie are molded plastically to his neck.
He has come over, he says, for Lady Reece's ball.
Enjoy it while you can. Soon Val will be even more dressed.
Members of The Mark Steyn Club can hear me read the conclusion of The Rubber Check simply by clicking here and logging-in. Earlier episodes can be found here.
Oh, and, if you're in the mood for a more raucous bit of audio entertainment this weekend, don't forget our spacey edition of Mark Steyn on the Town, in which we play among the stars.
Thank you for your kind comments on this caper and Tales for Our Time in general. Fraser Sutherland, an East Anglian Steyn Clubber, writes:
As for Tales for Our Time it has been a matter of discovering new authors (one knows the names, vaguely and, sometimes, even well, but one never actually reads them!). I listened to Mark Steyn's reading of A Journey Through the Bukovina by Sacheverell Sitwell with real pleasure and, with that encouragement, have since read Sitwell's wonderful Valse des Fleurs, A Day in St Petersburg in 1868. Without TFOT I would, most likely, have done neither. Long may this Club continue!
Amen to that, Fraser. We'll be back later this month with a brand new full-length Tale for Our Time. Meanwhile, if you've yet to hear any of our Tales, you can do so by joining The Mark Steyn Club. For details on membership, see here - and, if you're seeking something for a fellow fan of classic fiction this holiday season, don't forget our special Gift Membership.
