Which Concerns Itself Chiefly with a Letter

And now, the "Galloping Countryman" found himself famous, and, being
so, made the further, sudden discovery that all men were his
"warmest friends," nay, even among the gentler sex this obtained,
for the most dragon-like dowagers, the haughtiest matrons, became
infinitely gracious; noble fathers were familiarly jocose; the
proudest beauties wore, for him, their most bewitching airs, since
as well as being famous, he was known to be one of the wealthiest
young men about town; moreover His Royal Highness had deigned to
notice him, and Her Grace of Camberhurst was his professed friend.
Hence, all this being taken into consideration, it is not surprising
that invitations poured in upon him, and that the doors of the most
exclusive clubs flew open at his step.

Number Five St. James's Square suddenly became a rendezvous of Sport
and Fashion, before its portal were to be seen dashing turn-outs of
all descriptions, from phaetons to coaches; liveried menials,
bearing cards, embossed, gild-edged, and otherwise, descended upon St.
James's Square in multi-colored shoals; in a word, the Polite World
forthwith took Barnabas to its bosom, which, though perhaps a
somewhat cold and flinty bosom, made up for such minor deficiencies
by the ardor of its embrace. By reason of these things, the legs of
the Gentleman-in-Powder were exalted,--that is to say, were in a
perpetual quiver of superior gratification, and Barnabas himself
enjoyed it all vastly--for a week.

At the end of which period behold him at twelve o'clock in the
morning, as he sits over his breakfast (with the legs of the
Gentleman-in-Powder planted, statuesque, behind his chair), frowning
at a stupendous and tumbled pile of Fashionable note-paper, and
Polite cards.