Strong, putting together what he had learned from the Colonel
and Sir Francis, began to form in his own mind a pretty accurate opinion
as to the nature of the tie which bound the two men together.

CHAPTER XLV. A Chapter of Conversations

Every day, after the entertainment at Grosvenor Place and Greenwich,
of which we have seen Major Pendennis partake, the worthy gentleman's
friendship and cordiality for the Clavering family seemed to increase.
His calls were frequent; his attentions to the lady of the house
unremitting. An old man about town, he had the good fortune to be
received in many houses, at which a lady of Lady Clavering's distinction
ought to be seen. Would her ladyship not like to be present at the grand
entertainment at Gaunt House? There was to be a very pretty breakfast
ball at Viscount Marrowfat's, at Fulham. Everybody was to be there
(including august personages of the highest rank), and there was to be
a Watteau quadrille, in which Miss Amory would surely look charming. To
these and other amusements the obsequious old gentleman kindly offered
to conduct Lady Clavering, and was also ready to make himself useful to
the Baronet in any way agreeable to the latter.

In spite of his present station and fortune, the world persisted in
looking rather coldly upon Clavering, and strange suspicious rumours
followed him about. He was blackballed at two clubs in succession.
In the House of Commons, he only conversed with a few of the most
disreputable members of that famous body, having a happy knack of
choosing bad society, and adapting himself naturally to it, as other
people do to the company of their betters. The name all the senators
with whom Clavering consorted, would be invidious. We may mention only
a few. There was Captain Raff, the honourable member for Epsom, who
retired after the last Goodwood races, having accepted, as Mr. Hotspur,
the whip of the party, said, a mission to the Levant; there was
Hustingson, the patriotic member for Islington, whose voice is never
heard now denunciating corruption, since his appointment to the
Governorship of Coventry Island; there was Bob Freeny, of the
Booterstown Freenys, who is a dead shot, and of whom we therefore wish
to speak with every respect; and of all these gentlemen, with whom in
the course of his professional duty Mr. Hotspur had to confer, there was
none for whom he had a more thorough contempt and dislike than for Sir
Francis Clavering, the rep