This book with two titles, Three Men and a Maid in the USA and The Girl on the Boat in the UK is a typical PG Wodehouse romantic comedy, involving, at various times: a disastrous talent quest, a lawyer with a revolver, a bulldog with a mind of his own and a suit of armour!The maid, or marriageable young woman, of the American title is red-haired, dog-loving Wilhelmina "Billie" Bennet. The three men are Bream Mortimer, a long-time friend and admirer of Billie, Eustace Hignett, a poet of sensitive disposition who is engaged to Billie at the opening of the tale, and Sam Marlowe, Eustace's would-be-dashing cousin, who falls for Billie at first sight. All four find themselves on an ocean liner headed for England together , along with an elephant-gun-wielding young woman called Jane Hubbard who is smitten with Eustace the poet. Typically Wodehousian romantic shenanigans ensue. Even Estace's redoubtable mother fails to quell the excitement.
