Let us add that the conversation of the major was as irreproachable as his person--that he was a distinguished soldier and an accomplished traveller, with a retentive memory and a mind stuffed with the good things of a lifetime.

Combine all these qualities, and one would naturally regard the major as a most desirable acquaintance.
It is painful to have to remark, however, that, self-evident as this proposition might appear, it was vehemently contradicted by some of the initiated.

There were rumours concerning the major which seriously compromised his private character.

Indeed, such a pitch had they reached that when that gallant officer put himself forward as a candidate for a certain select club, he had, although proposed by a lord and seconded by a baronet, been most ignominiously pilled.

In public the major affected to laugh over this social failure, and to regard it as somewhat in the nature of a practical joke, but privately he was deeply incensed.