[
 {
  "chunk": 367,
  "story": 28,
  "summary": "Torchy goes to spend a weekend with a fastidious, well-dressed audit clerk of about thirty whom the office teases; the clerk earns little, has no hope of a raise, and is one of the firm's easily replaced cogs.",
  "predicament": "Someone junior accepts a weekend invitation from a gentle, overlooked colleague stuck forever in a dead-end place."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 368,
  "story": 28,
  "summary": "Torchy takes the invitation as kindness and accepts with a joke; the clerk later hints shyly that two ladies are coming to dinner and he should bring dark clothes.",
  "predicament": "A shy colleague awkwardly warns his guest that the visit will be more formal than he let on."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 369,
  "story": 28,
  "summary": "Torchy packs full evening dress to surprise his host, but is himself surprised to find the clerk lives in a grand estate with a butler, as his aunt's heir 'under certain conditions'.",
  "predicament": "Someone junior expecting a colleague's humble lodgings finds a mansion, and learns the lowly colleague is a rich relative's heir."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 370,
  "story": 28,
  "summary": "The clerk explains he was raised in luxury abroad until his father's business collapsed and both parents died, leaving him penniless; his shrewd aunt, who saved her fortune and made more in property, rescued him.",
  "predicament": "Someone who grew up idle and privileged lost everything at once and had to be rescued by a hard-headed relative."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 371,
  "story": 28,
  "summary": "The aunt insists he work at something steady, so he is stuck in a dull clerk's job he hates and feels he deserves; he adds that two large spinster neighbours are coming to dinner.",
  "predicament": "A dependent kept at dreary work by a strict benefactor sees no way out and believes he deserves nothing better."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 372,
  "story": 28,
  "summary": "He blushingly admits his aunt is matchmaking between him and the neighbours, but says he could never marry or propose, being such a duffer, then abruptly clams up.",
  "predicament": "A timid man admits his guardian is pushing a match on him, and insists he could never bring himself to propose."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 373,
  "story": 28,
  "summary": "The clerk admires Torchy's evening clothes; the wiry, shrewd aunt sizes Torchy up with one glance, and the two sisters prove enormous, with the slight clerk wedged between them at table.",
  "predicament": "A timid man is seated between two formidable women his guardian wants him to court, while the guardian watches everything."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 374,
  "story": 28,
  "summary": "Dinner is stiff and dull; the aunt, seeing her plan stalling, has champagne opened and makes her nephew drink, while turning down Torchy's glass.",
  "predicament": "A guardian sees her matchmaking going badly and quietly takes steps to loosen up her shy young relative."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 375,
  "story": 28,
  "summary": "After a toast the clerk livens up, describes European cities, agrees that ladies need an escort abroad, and cracks jokes that make the sisters shake with laughter.",
  "predicament": "A painfully shy man, loosened up by drink, suddenly charms the women his guardian wants him to court."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 376,
  "story": 28,
  "summary": "He plays piano after dinner and walks the sisters home; the aunt sends Torchy to bed, and from his window Torchy hears the clerk sneak out again.",
  "predicament": "A guest is sent to bed early by a stern host, and notices someone in the house slipping out again at night."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 377,
  "story": 28,
  "summary": "A cornet plays love songs from the waterfront; the aunt, guessing it is her nephew making a fool of himself, sends Torchy out to order him home to bed.",
  "predicament": "A guest is sent out at night by a stern host to fetch her relative home from some embarrassing escapade."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 378,
  "story": 28,
  "summary": "Torchy crashes through a hedge and a vegetable garden and finds the clerk playing the cornet on the neighbours' wharf; he begs Torchy not to tell his aunt and denies it is a serenade.",
  "predicament": "Someone sent to fetch a colleague catches him in an embarrassing act, and the colleague begs him to keep it quiet."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 379,
  "story": 28,
  "summary": "The clerk says the champagne made him restless and he only wanted to let off steam where nobody would hear; Torchy says the whole shore heard, and he is horrified the sisters will think it a serenade.",
  "predicament": "A timid man realises his harmless outburst will be taken as a declaration of love by the women who overheard it."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 380,
  "story": 28,
  "summary": "Sneaking past the sisters' house they are heard; the sisters ask which of them the serenade was for, and when the clerk cannot answer, Torchy holds him back and announces it was for Violet.",
  "predicament": "When a timid colleague cannot answer a woman's direct question, someone junior answers for him and commits him to her."
 },
 {
  "chunk": 381,
  "story": 28,
  "summary": "The clerk goes along with it, proposes next morning, and returns to work beaming: he is to marry Violet and live abroad, sister included, and he thanks Torchy, who asks only for the cornet.",
  "predicament": "A colleague pushed into a proposal by someone junior finds it frees him from a dead-end job, and thanks him."
 }
]