The story was published in The Strand Magazine in London in April 1922, and then in Cosmopolitan in New York in October 1922.

The story was also included in the 1923 collection The Inimitable Jeeves as two separate chapters, "Aunt Agatha Speaks Her Mind" and "Pearls Mean Tears".

Bertie receives a letter from his aunt, Agatha Gregson, bidding him to join her at Roville-sur-mer, a French resort.

Bertie, who cannot disobey his intimidating Aunt Agatha, consoles himself with the hope of wearing a bright scarlet cummerbund he bought.

Jeeves tells Bertie about a former employer who once gave a loan, with a pearl necklace as security, to a con man named Soapy Sid and his female accomplice.

Jeeves suggests that Bertie return the necklace to its owner, Aunt Agatha, and to make it clear to her that Aline was one of the thieves.

In the original version of the story, Bertie goes to the hotel in France in an unsuccessful attempt to avoid his Aunt Agatha.

[6] "Aunt Agatha Speaks Her Mind" was included in the 1948 anthology The Bedside Book of Humor: Many of the World's Funniest Stories, Poems, Skits and Cartoons, published by Peoples Book Club, and in the 1955 anthology A Treasury of Humor and Toastmaster's Handbook, published by Grolier.

[8] Minor plot differences include: This story, along with the rest of The Inimitable Jeeves, was adapted into a radio drama in 1973 as part of the series What Ho!