"I should like to have been by to give Lady Clavering my arm if she had need of it," Pen answered, with a bow and a blush.
"Quel preux chevalier!" cried the Sylphide, tossing up her little head.
"I have a fellow-feeling with those who fall, remember," Pen said. "I suffered myself very much from doing so once."
"And you went home to Laura to console you," said Miss Amory.
Pen winced. He did not like the remembrance of the consolation which Laura had given to him, nor was he very well pleased to find that his rebuff in that quarter was known to the world; so as he had nothing to say in reply, he began to be immensely interested in the furniture round about him, and to praise Lady Clavering's taste with all his might.
"Me, don't praise me," said honest Lady Clavering, "it's all the upholsterer's doings and Captain Strong's, they did it all while we was at the Park—and—and—Lady Rockminster has been here and says the salongs are very well," said Lady Clavering, with an air and tone of great deference.
"My cousin Laura has been staying with her," Pen said.
"It's not the dowager: it is the Lady Rockminster."
"Indeed!" cried Major Pendennis, when he heard this great name of fashion "if you have her ladyship's approval, Lady Clavering, you can not be far wrong. No, no, you can not be far wrong. Lady Rockminster, I should say, Arthur, is the very center of the circle of fashion and taste. The rooms are beautiful, indeed!" and the major's voice hushed as he spoke of this great lady, and he looked round and surveyed the apartments awfully and respectfully, as if he had been at church.