Quote For The Day

    “Mrs. Butterworth you’ve been extremely kind in allowing me to intrude upon your privacy this way I have two important calls to make, one in country one in town, so if you’ll please excuse me I’ll say goodbye.”
    “Mister Smith you mustn’t….”
    “I’m sorry I have to.”
    “………you mustn’t go like that! Some of dear Arthur’s things you’re very welcome, I’ve kept them all you see. It was stupid but even though there isn’t a man about the place I like to feel that there is, do you understand what I mean?”   
    “Yes.”
    “I just know you are in some kind of trouble. Have you any money?”
    “No.”
    “There you are you see, how are you going to get about?”
    “Its perfectly alright, I can manage thank you very much you’ve been terribly kind.”
    “You’re being silly and independent, and proud. Now come upstairs, you’ll find everything you want in the bathroom. And I’ll lay some of Arthur’s clothes out for you.”

                {Peter Smith and Mrs. Butterworth – Many Happy Returns}

   So just when did the merry widow move into 1 Buckingham Place? She looks to have been settled in for quite a long time. And Arthur, had he really existed, or was he just made up as part of Mrs. Butterworth’s story? Certainly there was a marriage photograph on the writing bureau, sadly it’s impossible to make out the happy couple. And there is also a framed photograph of a man apparently in Navy uniform on the mantelpiece, although they could be merely planted. It was lucky for Peter Smith that Arthur was exactly the same size as him! Oh and with the bathroom being upstairs, that as well as Mrs. Butterworth laying out some of Arthur’s clothes in the bedroom should belay any further thought of ZM73 having lived in a flat! And it was extremely kind of Mrs. Butterworth to lend Peter his own car. I’m sure he felt something like his own self again, out of those raggedy Village clothes and behind the wheel of his car once more.
   Mrs. Butterworth became quite agitated when Peter was about to leave her house, telling him he mustn’t go like that this raggedy man. After all what was he to her? And these two calls, one in the country and one in town, is that where he had been coming from in those few first moments of the opening sequence, having paid a call on the Colonel at his country residence before making a second call in town where he handed in his letter of resignation?

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