First Aid for Dora

"First Aid for Dora" is a short story by P. G. Wodehouse, which first appeared in the United States in the July 1923 issue of Cosmopolitan and in the United Kingdom in the August 1923 Strand. It features the irrepressible Stanley Featherstonehaugh Ukridge, and was included in the collection Ukridge, published in 1924.

Main characters

• Stanley Featherstonehaugh Ukridge, the irrepressible entrepreneur
  • Julia Ukridge, his haughty writer aunt
    • Dora Mason, Julia's secretary and companion
• Jimmy Corcoran, Ukridge's writer friend
  • Bowles, Corky's landlord, an ex-butler
• George Tupper, an old schoolfriend of Ukridge and Corcoran
• Muriel Watterson, a friend of Julia's, editor of Women's Sphere

Plot

Our narrator Jimmy Corcoran spots Ukridge helping an attractive young girl onto a bus; intrigued, he finds the girl is one Dora Mason, secretary to Ukridge's Aunt Julia, a novelist.

Later, having won some money on the Derby, Corcoran promises his friends a night out, but returning home to dress, he finds Bowles has let Ukridge borrow his evening suit. Dismayed, Corcoran must in turn borrow an ancient outfit from Bowles, which in addition to being rather snug, smells rather strongly of moth-balls, rendering his evening less than pleasant.

Seeing Ukridge enjoying himself in his fine clothes, Corcoran upbraids him strongly, but hears that Ukridge is entertaining the pretty Dora. The next day, Ukridge arrives with the news that, attempting to smuggle the girl back into his aunt's house, they were caught by a police officer, who woke the aunt, who in turn sacked Dora. Corcoran suggests asking their respectable friend George Tupper to put in a good word for the girl.

Later Ukridge returns with the news that Tupper's appeal has failed, and further upsets Corcoran by informing him that Aunt Julia now expects a visit from the writer, posing as a journalist from her favourite magazine, Women's Sphere, sent to interview her. Arriving at the house, he meets Aunt Julia in the company of another woman, introduced to him as a Miss Watterson, and finds her far less intimidating than expected. However, she soon reveals that Ukridge's thin plot has been see through, and that Miss Watterson is in fact the editor of Women's Sphere, sending Corcoran away in shame and embarrassment.

Arriving home, he finds Ukridge on his couch, and hears that Dora has found work elsewhere and the scheme need not go ahead. Ukridge had known this the previous day, but had omitted to inform his friend and spare him his ordeal.

See also

• List of Wodehouse's Ukridge stories