office; a tidy sort of
young man, with a tendency to cold and corns, who comes in a pair of
boots with black cloth fronts, and brings his shoes in his coat-pocket,
which shoes he is at this very moment putting on in the hall. Now he is
announced by the man in the passage to another man in a blue coat, who is
a disguised messenger from the office.

The man on the first landing precedes him to the drawing-room door. 'Mr.
Tupple!' shouts the messenger. 'How _are_ you, Tupple?' says the master
of the house, advancing from the fire, before which he has been talking
politics and airing himself. 'My dear, this is Mr. Tupple (a courteous
salute from the lady of the house); Tupple, my eldest daughter; Julia, my
dear, Mr. Tupple; Tupple, my other daughters; my son, sir;' Tupple rubs
his hands very hard, and smiles as if it were all capital fun, and keeps
constantly bowing and turning himself round, till the whole family have
been introduced, when he glides into a chair at the corner of the sofa,
and opens a miscellaneous conversation with the young ladies upon the
weather, and the theatres, and the old year, and the last new murder, and
the balloon, and the ladies' sleeves, and the festivities of the season,
and a great many other topics of small talk.

More double knocks! what an extensive party! what an incessant hum of
conversation and general sipping of coffee! We see Tupple now, in our
mind's eye, in the height of his glory. He has just handed that stout
old lady's cup to the servant; and now, he dives among the crowd of young
men by the door, to intercept the other servant, and secure the
muffin-plate for the old lady's daughter, before he leaves the room; and
now, as he passes the sofa on his way back, he bestows a glance of
recognition and patronage upon the young ladies as condescending and
familiar as if he had known them from infancy.

Charming person Mr. Tupple--perfect ladies' man--such a delightful
companion, too! Laugh!--nobody ever understood papa's jokes half so well
as Mr. Tupple, who laughs himself into convulsions at every fresh burst
of facetiousness. Most delightful partner! talks through the whole set!
and although he does seem at first rather gay and frivolous, so romantic
and with so _much_ feeling! Quite a love. No great favourite with the
young men, certainly, who sneer at, and affect to despise him; but
everybody knows that's only envy, and they needn't give themselves the
trouble to deprec