More on the Flowerpot Theme explained

What happens

Themes in this chapter

• Deception and Manipulation

  Miss Peavey and Mr. Cootes scheme to recover the necklace, deducing Eve's role and the hiding place in Psmith's cottage.

• Comedy of Errors and Miscommunication

  Eve's frantic search for the necklace in the flowerpot contrasts with Psmith's oblivious, humorous chatter about marriage and card tricks.

• The Absurdity of High Society

  The house-party's division into gloomy and joyful factions over a stolen necklace highlights the triviality and self-absorption of the aristocratic set.

Characters to notice

• Eve Halliday

  Despondent after discovering the flowerpot empty; she had hidden the necklace there and now finds only mould.

• Psmith

  Accompanies Eve to his cottage, prattling amiably; unaware of the necklace's significance, he continues his humorous marriage proposal.

• Aileen Peavey

  Observes Eve and Psmith in the Yew Alley; deduces Eve was on the terrace during the theft and that the necklace is hidden in Psmith's cottage.

• Edward Cootes

  Hidden in a tree in the Yew Alley, conferring with Miss Peavey; she relays her deduction about the necklace's location.

• Lady Constance

  In a state bordering on collapse after the theft; brightens when Mr. Keeble promises to buy her a new necklace.

• Joseph Keeble

  Generously promises Lady Constance a new necklace, then becomes despondent after learning from Eve that the necklace is missing.

Key passages

• “In any community in which a sensational crime has recently been committed, the feelings of the individuals who go to make up that community must of necessity vary somewhat sharply according to the degree in which the personal fortunes of each are affected by the outrage.”

  After a shocking crime, people's reactions differ based on how much it personally impacts them.

  Opening reflection on the varied responses to the necklace theft.

• “She kissed Mr. Keeble gratefully, and attacked with something approaching animation the boiled egg at which she had been pecking when he came in.”

  She thanked Mr. Keeble with a kiss and began eating her boiled egg with renewed energy.

  Lady Constance's mood improves after her husband's promise of a new necklace.

• “Eve found herself unable to wait any longer. Psmith was out of sight now, and the wood was very still and empty. Birds twittered in the branches, and the sun made little pools of gold upon the ground. She cast a swift glance about her and crouched down in the shelter of a tree. The birds stopped singing. The sun no longer shone. The wood had become cold and sinister. For Eve, with a heart of lead, was staring blankly at a little pile of mould at her feet; mould which she had sifted again and again in a frenzied, fruitless effort to find a necklace which was not there.”

  Alone in the woods, Eve frantically searches the flowerpot for the necklace but finds only dirt, her hope turning to despair.

  Eve's desperate discovery that the necklace is gone.

• “A weird and repellent female,” he said to Eve as they drew out of hearing, “created for some purpose which I cannot fathom. Everything in this world, I like to think, is placed there for some useful end: but why the authorities unleashed Miss Peavey on us is beyond me. It is not too much to say that she gives me a pain in the gizzard.”

  Psmith tells Eve that Miss Peavey is a strange and unpleasant woman whose existence he cannot justify.

  Psmith's candid opinion of Miss Peavey.