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Count Pateroff had come to him at Lady Ongar's request, and therefore, as he thought, the count should have been the first to mention her. But the count seemed to be enjoying his dinner without any thought either of Lady Ongar or of her late husband. At this time he had been down to Ongar Park, on that mission which had been, as we know, futile; but he said no word of that to Harry.
The world in which she had lived had taught her to laugh at romance, to laugh at it even while she liked its beauty; and she would tell herself that for such a one as her to do such a thing as this, would be to insure for herself the ridicule of all who knew her name. What would Sir Hugh say, and her sister? What Count Pateroff and the faithful Sophie?
As she turned round there was Count Pateroff with his hand already upon her dress, so that no danger might be produced by the suddenness of his speech. "There is nothing to fear," she said, stepping back from her seat. As she did so, he dropped his hand from her dress, and, raising it to his head, lifted his hat from his forehead.
Such was Harry's belief; and he resolved that, though he might have to seize Pateroff by the tails of his coat, the count should not escape him without having been forced at any rate to hear what he had to say. In the meantime the dinner went on very pleasantly. "Ah," said the count, "there is no fish like salmon early in the year; but not too early.
Then he added that, as far as his memory served him, he had not the honor of knowing the lady who was addressing him. "You come in to your little dinner," said Sophie, "and I will tell you everything as you are eating. Don't mind me. You shall eat and drink, and I will talk. I am Madam Gordeloup Sophie Gordeloup. Ah! you know the name now. Yes. That is me. Count Pateroff is my brother.
But the chief merit of The Clarverings is in the genuine fun of some of the scenes. Humour has not been my forte, but I am inclined to think that the characters of Captain Boodle, Archie Clavering, and Sophie Gordeloup are humorous. Count Pateroff, the brother of Sophie, is also good, and disposes of the young hero's interference in a somewhat masterly manner.
"He looks like a man who could be kind if he chooses." "He is one of those, Harry, who find it easy to be good-natured, and who are soft by nature, as cats are not from their heart, but through instinctive propensity to softness. When it suits them, they scratch, even though they have been ever so soft before. Count Pateroff is a cat. You, Harry, I think are a dog."
On the previous evening Harry had received a note from Lady Ongar, in which she upbraided him for having left unperformed her commission with reference to Count Pateroff. The letter had begun quite abruptly. "I think it unkind of you that you do not come to me. I asked you, to see a certain person on my behalf, and you have not done so. Twice he has been here. Once I was in truth out.
Pateroff was speaking of Lady Ongar in this way, and Harry hated him for doing so. "I don't want you to say any good of her," said he, "or any evil." "I certainly shall say no evil of her." "But I think you know that she has been most cruelly treated." "Well, there is about seven-thousand-pounds a year, I think! Seven-thousand a year! Not francs, but pounds!
This enclosure purported to be an expression of Lord Ongar's wishes on many subjects, as they had been communicated to Count Pateroff in the latter days of the lord's life; but as the manuscript was altogether in the count's writing, and did not even pretend to have been subjected to Lord Ongar's eye, it simply amounted to the count's own story of their alleged conversations.
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