# Short Fiction — Character guide

> Key figures in Short Fiction by Saki.

- [Clovis Sangrail](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_49_se/characters/clovis_sangrail.md): Clovis moves through county society as a guest whose amusement is other people's discomfort, matching wits with a baroness over whose role will dominate a Greek play. When she annexes his verse for her own glorification,
- [Reginald](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_49_se/characters/reginald.md): Reginald is the guest every hostess fears and every reader follows, drifting from marrons glacés to croquet lawn in search of conversational prey. He punctures Colonel Mendoza's age, instructs the youngest Rampage in abs
- [Bertie van Tahn](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_49_se/characters/bertie_van_tahn.md): Bertie resents the festive season and the eager social planning around him, contributing only a scandalous remark about bed-space and a refusal to join the others. Left in charge while the household troops out to hear th
- [Groby Lington](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_49_se/characters/groby_lington.md): Groby Lington was long regarded as a cheerful, well-dispositioned body who gave no particular trouble, but recent months have turned his household and congregation against him. He flips lozenges at a fellow worshipper du
- [Martin Stoner](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_49_se/characters/martin_stoner.md): Stoner arrives at the farm soaked and starving, and the old servant greets him as Master Tom, dead four years to the family. He eats, accepts a bed, and wakes to the cold realization that he has been handed another man's
- [Kenelm Jerton](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_49_se/characters/kenelm_jerton.md): Jerton is the man at the center of a luggage mix-up, overhearing a furious lady demand why her dress-basket and dressing-case have been tampered with. He recognizes the name Kestrel-Smith, hears enough, and vanishes into
- [Mona](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_49_se/characters/mona.md): Mona belongs to the farm the way weather does — old, unheeding, and impossible to displace. Emma Ladbruk arrives full of modern ideas, only to find her authority quietly outlasted by a woman who has trussed chickens the 
- [The Chaplain](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_49_se/characters/the_chaplain.md): A clergyman who appears in various social settings, often with dry wit.
- [Sylvia Seltoun](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_49_se/characters/sylvia_seltoun.md): Sylvia moves through the social world of the Greek-costume play as both participant and provocation, one of the women whose attachments keep the rehearsal room simmering. Her presence sharpens the contrast between the ba
- [Vera Durmot](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_49_se/characters/vera_durmot.md): Vera belongs to the drawing-room set that turns a Greek play into a social battlefield, and her imaginative streak sets her apart from the more literal-minded company. Where others merely learn lines, she inhabits them, 
- [Octavian Ruttle](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_49_se/characters/octavian_ruttle.md): Octavian observes the Umberleigh household from a comfortable distance — close enough to be summoned, far enough to escape the worst of Crispina's rule. When his aunt disappears, he becomes a wry witness to the family's 
- [Richard Duncombe](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_49_se/characters/richard_duncombe.md): A character involved in romantic and social misadventures.
- [Lena Strudwarden](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_49_se/characters/lena_strudwarden.md): A woman whose actions have significant social repercussions.
- [Conradin](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_49_se/characters/conradin.md): Conradin lives under the thumb of a guardian who regards him as a nuisance and his pleasures as contraband. Denied ordinary comforts, he invents a god of his own — Sredni Vashtar — and tends the ferret's cage with the de
- [Nicholas Herison](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_49_se/characters/nicholas_herison.md): A man whose plans are often thwarted by unforeseen circumstances.
- [Sophie Chattel-Monkheim](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_49_se/characters/sophie_chattel_monkheim.md): Sophie has staked her dinner — and her reputation — on one emergency chef who alone can produce a Byzantine omelette for the Duke of Syria. When the household staff down tools over his strikebreaking past, her meticulous
- [Ulrich von Gradwitz](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_49_se/characters/ulrich_von_gradwitz.md): Ulrich von Gradwitz belongs to that class of men for whom a boundary line is a moral absolute, and the neighboring family across it are less people than an inherited insult. His wealth and position give him every comfort
- [Theodoric Voler](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_49_se/characters/theodoric_voler.md): Theodoric Voler has been raised so gently that the ordinary world arrives as a series of ambushes, and a railway journey becomes an ordeal of etiquette and panic. His horror of embarrassment outweighs his horror of anyth
- [Philip Sletherby](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_49_se/characters/philip_sletherby.md): A young man whose ambitions are tested by a social encounter.
- [Bertie Thropplestance](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_49_se/characters/bertie_thropplestance.md): A man whose marital situation is a subject of family discussion.
- [Alethia Debchance](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_49_se/characters/alethia_debchance.md): A woman who is forewarned about a potential suitor's past.
- [John Blenkinthrope](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_49_se/characters/john_blenkinthrope.md): A man whose name is frequently misremembered.
- [John James Abbleway](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_49_se/characters/john_james_abbleway.md): A character involved in a complicated social scheme.
- [Lady Drakmanton](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_49_se/characters/lady_drakmanton.md): A society woman known for her sharp tongue and social maneuvering.
- [Norah](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_49_se/characters/norah.md): A woman whose romantic choices are influenced by family pressure.
- [Leonard Bilsiter](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_49_se/characters/leonard_bilsiter.md): Leonard Bilsiter moves through drawing rooms trading on a mystique he has largely invented, claiming an Eastern education and a command of strange forces that no one can quite disprove. His vanity is matched only by his 
- [Lady Anne Egbert](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_49_se/characters/lady_anne_egbert.md): Lady Anne Egbert occupies that peculiar English position where silence is read as either dignity or disdain, and she offers no clue which. Her reticence is not shyness but a kind of armor, and it frustrates the people ar
- [Norman Gortsby](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_49_se/characters/norman_gortsby.md): A man who is cynical about a stranger's story in a park.
- [Rollo](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_49_se/characters/rollo.md): A young man whose name is a source of social awkwardness.
- [Belturbet](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_49_se/characters/belturbet.md): A character who appears in a story about a lost sanjak.
- [Amanda Smithly-Dubb](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_49_se/characters/amanda_smithly_dubb.md): One of the three Miss Smithly-Dubbs, involved in a social drama.
- [Sir Lulworth Quayne](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_49_se/characters/sir_lulworth_quayne.md): A baronet whose death leads to a family dispute.
- [Rex Dillot](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_49_se/characters/rex_dillot.md): A man whose fate is the subject of a story.
- [Susan Mebberley](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_49_se/characters/susan_mebberley.md): A woman whose name is frequently mispronounced.
- [Rupert](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_49_se/characters/rupert.md): A young man who is the subject of a social bet.
- [Jocantha Bessbury](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_49_se/characters/jocantha_bessbury.md): A woman whose cat brings her unexpected happiness.
- [James Cushat-Prinkly](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_49_se/characters/james_cushat_prinkly.md): A man whose tea party is disrupted by an unexpected guest.
- [Artemus Gibbon](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_49_se/characters/artemus_gibbon.md): A man who is overwhelmed by a series of social demands.
- [Tobermory](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_49_se/characters/tobermory.md): Tobermory has spent years as a silent witness to the drawing-room conversations of his betters, and when he begins to talk he shows no inclination to protect anyone's feelings. His talent is genuine, his memory is excell
- [Mrs. Peter Pigeoncote](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_49_se/characters/mrs_peter_pigeoncote.md): A woman whose husband's name causes confusion.
- [Emily](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_49_se/characters/emily_fate.md): A woman whose fate is intertwined with a series of events.
- [Laploshka](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_49_se/characters/laploshka.md): Laploshka is the kind of man who lends money with an air of doing you a favor and then never lets you forget it, appearing at inconvenient moments to remind you of the debt. His poverty is real but his timing is theatric
- [Prince Vespaluus](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_49_se/characters/prince_vespaluus.md): A young prince whose education is a matter of state.
- [Jane Martlet](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_49_se/characters/jane_martlet.md): A woman whose name is used in a social deception.
- [Beryl Pevenly](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_49_se/characters/beryl_pevenly.md): A woman whose social standing is a topic of conversation.
- [Cousin Teresa](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_49_se/characters/cousin_teresa.md): A cousin whose presence at a house party causes tension.
- [Van Cheele](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_49_se/characters/van_cheele.md): A woman who encounters a mysterious creature in her garden.
- [Mrs. Packletide](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_49_se/characters/mrs_packletide.md): Mrs. Packletide moves through country-house society where reputations are made and unmade by a single conspicuous gesture, and she has decided that a tiger skin is the gesture she needs. Her rivalry with the dazzling Loo
- [Septimus Brope](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_49_se/characters/septimus_brope.md): A man whose name is a source of social awkwardness.
- [Ronald](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_49_se/characters/ronald.md): A young man known for his insouciant attitude.
- [Tom Yorkfield](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_49_se/characters/tom_yorkfield.md): A man who is compared to a bull.
- [Sir Wilfrid Pigeoncote](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_49_se/characters/sir_wilfrid_pigeoncote.md): A baronet whose name is a source of family confusion.
- [Laura Lipping](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_49_se/characters/laura_lipping.md): A woman whose name is used in a social deception.
- [Matilda Cuvering](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_49_se/characters/matilda_cuvering.md): A woman whose name is a source of social amusement.
- [Crispina Umberleigh](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_49_se/characters/crispina_umberleigh.md): A woman whose past is revealed through a series of letters.
- [Emma Ladbruk](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_49_se/characters/emma_ladbruk.md): A woman whose name is a source of social confusion.
- [Waldo Plubley](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_49_se/characters/waldo_plubley.md): A man whose name is a source of social awkwardness.
- [Cyprian](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_49_se/characters/cyprian.md): A young man who is the subject of a social bet.
- [Mrs. Attray](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_49_se/characters/mrs_attray.md): A woman whose name is a source of social confusion.
- [Sir Laurence](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_49_se/characters/sir_laurence.md): A baronet who is the subject of a social bet.
- [Luke Steffink](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_49_se/characters/luke_steffink.md): A man whose name is a source of social confusion.
- [Robert Bludward](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_49_se/characters/robert_bludward.md): A man whose name is a source of social amusement.
- [Betsy Mullen](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_49_se/characters/betsy_mullen.md): An old woman whose name is a source of social confusion.
- [Georg Znaeym](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_49_se/characters/georg_znaeym.md): Georg Znaeym belongs to the wrong side of a boundary dispute that has outlived its original grievance, a quarrel his family never accepted losing. He patrols the contested woodland with the same vigilance as his aristocr
- [Mrs. Pallitson](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_49_se/characters/mrs_pallitson.md): A woman whose name is a source of social awkwardness.
- [Adela Pingsford](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_49_se/characters/adela_pingsford.md): A woman whose name is a source of social confusion.
- [Mrs. Pentherby](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_49_se/characters/mrs_pentherby.md): A woman whose name is a source of social confusion.
- [Mrs. Duff-Chubleigh](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_49_se/characters/mrs_duff_chubleigh.md): A woman whose name is a source of social awkwardness.
- [Theophil Eshley](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_49_se/characters/theophil_eshley.md): An artist whose painting causes a social stir.
- [Mrs. Pevenly](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_49_se/characters/mrs_pevenly.md): A woman whose name is a source of social awkwardness.
- [Framton Nuttel](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/short_fiction_49_se/characters/framton_nuttel.md): Framton Nuttel arrives at a rural household armed with letters of introduction and a doctor's orders to avoid excitement, a prescription that proves spectacularly ill-suited to his hostess. Anxious, literal-minded, and d

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