P. G. Wodehouse Minor Characters - Peter Burns

Peter Burns

The hero of The Little Nugget is a well-to-do man of thirty, in excellent health, with a little sadness in his past. During a hell-raising and somewhat self-absorbed youth, he became engaged to Audrey Blake, but treated her rather poorly, patronizing her from his position of great wealth. When she left him for another, his arrogance was brought home to him, and he wandered the earth for three years, a broken man. When we first meet him, he has recently returned to London and has just become engaged to Cynthia Drassilis, mostly because he felt sorry for her.

Easily manipulated by Cynthia, he takes a job as a master at Sanstead House to further her plan to kidnap Ogden Ford, Burns finds his job complicated by the arrival on the scene of the long-lost Audrey, now a widow and dependent on Elmer Ford for her income. Burns shows considerable wit, courage and endurance in his battles with Smooth Sam Fisher, Buck MacGinnis and Ogden himself, and learns much about himself as he struggles to do the right thing and balance his commitment to Cynthia with his growing feelings for Audrey. His fortunes are resolved largely by the hand of fate.