There was great rush of gentlemen to call upon him; many of the mammas seemed to think that first come would be first served, and sent their husbands over before he was fairly squatted.  Various and contradictory were the accounts they brought home.  Men are so stupid at seeing and remembering things.  Old Mr. Muddle came back bemused with sherry, declaring that he thought Mr. Puffington was as old as he was (sixty-two), while Mrs. Mousetrap thought he wasn’t more than thirty at the outside.  She described him as ‘painfully handsome.’  Mr. Slowan couldn’t tell whether the drawing-room furniture was chintz, or damask, or what it was; indeed, he wasn’t sure that he was in the drawing-room at all; while Mr. Gapes insisted that the carpet was a Turkey carpet, whereas it was a royal cut pile.  It might be that the smartness and freshness of everything confused the bucolic minds, little accustomed to wholesale grandeur.

Mr. Puffington quite eclipsed all the old country families with their ‘company rooms’ and put-away furniture.  Then, when he began to grind about the country in his lofty mail-phaeton, with a pair of spanking, high-stepping bays, and a couple of arm-folded, lolling grooms, shedding his cards in return for their calls, there was such a talk, such a commotion, as had never been known before.  Then, indeed, he was appreciated at his true worth.

[Illustration:  AN ‘AMA-A-ZIN’ POP’LAR’ MAN]

‘Mr. Puffington was here the other day,’ said Mrs. Smirk to Mrs. Smooth, in the well-known ‘great-deal-more-meant-than-said’ style.  ’Oh such a charming man!  Such ease! such manners! such knowledge of high life!’ Puff had been at his old tricks.  He had resuscitated Lord Legbail, now Earl of Loosefish; imported Sir Harry Blueun from somewhere near Geneva, whither he had retired on marrying his mistress; and resuscitated Lord Mudlark, who had broken his neck many years before from his tandem in Piccadilly.  Whatever was said, Puff always had a duplicate or illustration involving a nobleman.  The great names might be rather far-fetched at times, to be sure, but when people are inclined to be pleased they don’t keep putting that and that together to see how they fit, and whether they come naturally or are lugged in neck and heels.  Puff’s talk was very telling.

One great man to a house is the usual country allowance, and many are not very long in letting out who theirs are; but Puffington seemed to have the whole peerage, baronetage, and knightage at command.  Old Mrs. Slyboots, indeed, thought that he must be connected with the peerage some way; his mother, perhaps, had been the daughter of a peer, and she gave herself an infinity of trouble in hunting through the ’matches’—­with what success it is not necessary to say.  The old ladies unanimously agreed that he was a most agreeable, interesting young man; and though the young ones did pretend to run him down among themselves, calling him ugly, and so on, it was only in the vain hope of dissuading each other from thinking of him.