ed a third away from her party at a picnic at
Erith, begged the mamma of a fourth to take her to a Woolwich ball, sent a
fifth a ticket for a Toxophilite meeting, and dangled about the carriage of
the sixth at a review at the Scrubbs. Poor Puff never thought of being
more than an am_aa_zin' instance of a pop'lar man!

Not that the ladies' denunciations did the Corinthian any harm at
first--old ladies know each other better than that; and each new mamma had
no doubt but Mrs. Depecarde or Mrs. Mainchance, as the case might be, had
been deceiving herself--'was always doing so, indeed; her ugly girls were
not likely to attract any one--certainly not such an elegant man as
Corinthian Tom.'

But as season after season passed away, and the Corinthian still played the
old game--still went the old rounds--the dinner and ball invitations
gradually dwindled away, till he became a mere stop-gap at the one, and a
landing-place appendage at the other.

[Illustration: MR. PUFFINGTON, FROM THE ORIGINAL PICTURE]

CHAPTER XXXII

THE MAN OF P-R-O-R-PERTY

And now behold Mr. Puffington, fat, fair, and rather more than
forty--Puffington, no longer the light limber lad who patronized us in Bond
Street, but Puffington a plump, portly sort of personage, filling his smart
clothes uncommonly full. Men no longer hailing him heartily from bay
windows, or greeting him cheerily in short but familiar terms, but bowing
ceremoniously as they passed with their wives, or perhaps turning down
streets or into shops to avoid him. What is the last rose of summer to do
under such circumstances? What, indeed, but retire into the country? A man
may shine there long after he is voted a bore in town, provided none of his
old friends are there to proclaim him. Country people are tolerant of
twaddle, and slow of finding things out for themselves. Puff now turned his
attention to the country, or rather to the advertisements of estates for
sale, and immortal George Robins soon fitted him with one of his earthly
paradises; a mansion replete with every modern elegance, luxury, and
convenience, situated in the heart of the most lovely scenery in the world,
with eight hundred acres of land of the finest quality, capable of growing
forty bushels of wheat after turnips. In addition to the estate there was a
lordship or reputed lordship to shoot over, a river to fish in, a pack of
fox-hounds to hunt with, and the advertisements gave a sly hint as to the
possib