Page:Vivian Grey, Volume 1.djvu/197

 that Foaming Fudge can do more than any man in Great Britain: that he had one day to plead in the King's Bench, spout at a tavern, speak in the house, and fight a duel—and that he found time for every thing but the last."

"Excellent!" laughed Mr. Cayenne.

Mr. Parthenopex Puff was reputed in a certain set, a sayer of good things, but he was a modest wit, and generally fathered his bon mots on his valet Booby, his monkey, or his parrot.

"I saw you in the last number," said Cayenne. "From the quotations from your own works, I imagine the review of your own book was by yourself?"

"What do you think Booby said?"

"Mr. Puff, allow me to introduce you to Lord Alhambra," said Ernest Clay, by which means Mr. Puff's servant's last good thing was lost.

"Mr. Clay, are you an archer?" asked Cynthia Courtown.