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Off the Record“This place is yet another example of modern jokesmanship,” Mr. Campion remarked as he steered Julia across the splendid marble floor to the dining room of Harper’s Club in Davies Street.
“It’s rather like a beautiful Inverness cloak one has inherited. Much too good to hide away, so one wears it instead of an overcoat and pretends it’s an amusing new fashion.” He pushed open the mellow mahogany door and they entered a vast Georgian room with a cornice like a wedding cake. “This was the late Lord Boat’s town house,” he went on. “He had a butler called Harper who was with him for forty years. When old Boat died the title became extinct and Alf Pianissimo, the caterer, bought up the property and rights in Harper. He pensioned him and even had the old man about the place for
