The consequence
was that all these ladies, all their daughters, all the relations and
connexions of this life, thought it incumbent upon them to 'blow' our
friend Puff--proclaim how infamously he had behaved--all because he had
danced three supper dances with one girl, brought another a fine bouquet
from Covent Garden, walked 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.
Pages:
433
434
435
436
437
438
439
440
441
442
443
444
445
446
447
448
449
450
451
452
453
454
455
456
457