and Lady Agnes
Foker, who happened to be in London, requested the pleasure of Major
Pendennis and Mr. Arthur Pendennis's company at dinner in Grosvenor
Street. "Having obtained the entree into Lady Agnes Foker's house," he
said to Pen with an affectionate solemnity which befitted the importance
of the occasion, "it behoves you, my dear boy, to keep it. You must mind
and never neglect to call in Grosvenor Street when you come to London. I
recommend you to read up carefully, in Debrett, the alliances and
genealogy of the Earls of Rosherville, and if you can, to make some
trifling allusions to the family, something historical, neat, and
complimentary, and that sort of thing, which you, who have a poetic
fancy, can do pretty well. Mr. Foker himself is a worthy man, though not
of high extraction or indeed much education. He always makes a point of
having some of the family porter served round after dinner, which you
will on no account refuse, and which I shall drink myself, though all
beer disagrees with me confoundedly." And the heroic martyr did actually
sacrifice himself, as he said he would, on the day when the dinner took
place, and old Mr.
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