User:GabbiGB/When Doctors Disagree (short story)

"When Doctors Disagree" is a short story by P. G. Wodehouse, which first appeared in the United Kingdom in the December 1910 issue of the Strand. It was included in the collection The Man Upstairs, (1914).

Plot
Arthur Welch is a barber at the Hotel Belvoir. He is engaged to Maud Peters, who is a manicurist at the same hotel. While she takes care of her customers' hands, Maud thinks, as part of her profession, that she must chat gaily with them. But Arthur, who is extremely jealous, thinks otherwise. And it bothers Maud to have Arthur frowning over her head every time she smiles to a customer's joke.

She decides to take advice from Doctor Cupid, who holds the Matter of the Heart "Consulting Room" in the weekly magazine Fireside Chat. Dr Cupid advises her to try to pique her fiancé. An this is what she does with a very enterprising young American pugilist, known as 'Skipper" Shute. But, very surprisingly, Arthur does not seem to care a bit about the gay badinage going on between his fiancée and the pugilist. More, when Mr Shute invites Maud to spend one evening with her in White City, Arthur thinks it an excellent idea. From this unexpected reaction, Maud deduces that Arthur does not love her anymore.

Arthur even takes Maud, after the shop is closed, to the White City himself. There they meet Mr Shute, who succeeds in loosing Arthur and finding himself alone with Maud. When he tries to kiss her, Arthur, who has come back, provokes Mr Shute into a fight. He even gives him a blow on the head, causing Mr Shute's silk top hat to fall on the ground. Mr Shute runs after his hat, but, when he comes back with it, ready to show Arthur what a real pugilist is, a very large constable has appeared on the scene, and ask the contestants to stop creating trouble on the street.

While they move away, fully reconciled with each other, Arthur shows Maud a paper clipping, from the magazine "Home Moments", where, in answer to his request, "The Heart Specialist" has written that Arthur should show no resentment to his fiancée, whenever he sees her flirting with other men.