Ch217 (p3); Sir Miles Kennard and Mrs. Irina Petrovna
⚠️ longer chapter post than usual ⚠️
Sebastian teases his young master about the children's ball, then they overhear a conversation between three people standing in the background.
The mayor of Brighton is thanking Sir Miles and Mrs. Petrovna for their efforts or donations to the charity, while Sir Miles says the thanks belongs to the mayor.
Two of them -- Irina and the mayor -- seem to have different accents when they first speak to each other, but they both quickly drop the accents or whatever affected speech they used. I'm not sure what that's all about.
Just like "paid for it themselves" about Victoria and Albert's pleasure palace, "close friend" is in quotes. Clearly, the knighted man and the widowed lady are lovers. The little tug and the blushing say it all.
When her late husband is mentioned, she starts to cry, but then she sees our earl and calls out to him and Sebastian. The tears end as quickly as they start. She assumes our earl is in costume for the ball... and that Sebastian is his father.
It's funny that one of her guesses for his outfit is a "phantom". The original, serial publication of The Phantom of the Opera didn't begin until 1909, so I guess she means more along the lines of a ghost. 👻 Of course, he corrects her to say the eyepatch is no costume, and she apologizes.
He darts behind Sebastian, but it's not quite like the fearful way he has hidden behind Sebastian (or Vincent) in the past. He nudges Sebastian to speak with her and offer something towards the charity, though we don't actually see what he hands her. It could be coin, but earlier they said they were low on funds. Quite broke, right? But they somehow get the earl a new wardrobe, train tickets, hotel rooms, etc. This makes me wonder what they consider "broke"... and whether Sebastian has been acquiring money somehow as they proceed with their investigation.
Sebastian says the donation is anonymous -- clarifying that they are master and servant, not son and father-- and our earl makes puking 🤢 faces behind Sebastian's back as Irina complements the young lord for his charitable nature. Then they leave.
I could not find this Sir Miles Kennard (and here, he looks more like the historical John Brown than our John Brown could ever). Perhaps there was someone in a similar position/station that he's been modeled after, but I haven't delved into that particular research topic... just yet. Is our earl assuming that Sir Kennard has a wife and children (it wasn't mentioned by Miles), or does he just recognize that name and happens to know this about him?
Likewise, the Irina Petrovna's I have found aren't a good match, though that might not matter too much. She's the second person with a decidedly Slavic name we have come across in Brighton. Wasn't there some research years ago about the pistol that our earl uses at some point? Wasn't it found to be of Russian origin? Anyway, I'm curious about why Irina and Modri have made their appearances now....
Anyone else think it's a bit odd that Sebastian points out to our earl that the sun sets early in winter? Like he doesn't know. But I guess it's really just meant to remind us readers that it's December... even though early December isn't considered winter, and it should still be early in the month.
One last thing I wanted to mention here: there's a comment in a rectangular box at the end of the chapter, as is typical in the original publication, and it's often not included in the English edition. However, a fellow blogger sent me pics of that box, with the original text and also covered in an English translation:
So, ch218 should finally be in the "smoking room".
