Had the worthy butcher who a few hours previously took pity on the two ragged, sinking mendicants, and sustained their strength and courage by means of hot brandy-and-water at the Elephant and Castle,--had he now beheld Mrs. and Miss Fitzhardinge sitting down, elegantly attired, at a well spread dinner-table, and at the fashionable time of six in the evening,--he would not for an instant have supposed that the way-worn beggars of the morning’s adventure and the ladies of Suffolk Street, Pall Mall, were identical: or if, by chance, he should have recognised Perdita’s handsome countenance, he would have thought that the delusions of enchantment had been practised upon him or her. And now we have prepared the way, with due prefatory explanation, for one of the most striking and remarkable episodes in this narrative--an episode showing how Perdita’s arts and Perdita’s beauty accomplished aims which women of less enterprise than herself and her mother would have deemed impossible. Oh! fatal influence--that influence which the depraved and wanton Perdita wielded by means of her transcendant charms! [Illustration] CHAPTER CXXIX. THE ADVERTISING AGENT. On the day after the one the incidents of which have just been related, Mr. Bubbleton Styles called, precisely as the clock struck eleven in the forenoon, upon an advertising agent dwelling in the immediate vicinity of Cornhill. The agent, knowing that Mr. Styles was the registered promoter of a scheme which had obtained the patronage of the high and mighty Mr. Podgson, was particularly civil and urbane; and having bowed him into the private office, and presented him with a chair, he said, “Now, Mr. Styles, sir--what can I do for you?” “I intend to give the newspapers a round of advertisements,” answered the City gentleman, pulling out his prospectuses. “Softly--softly, my dear sir,” exclaimed the agent: “you must be guided by me in this. If you went to the generality of agents, they would say, ‘_Oh! advertise by all means in every paper in existence_:’--but I, Mr. Styles, am a little more conscientious. There are some journals, in fact, which are perfectly useless as advertising media: it would be money completely thrown away.” “I am much obliged to you for your kindness,” said Mr. Styles. “Of course we shall advertise in the _Times_.” “As a matter of course!” cried the agent. “’Tis the great daily Leviathan which every body sees, no matter what his politics may be. The _Morning Chronicle_, too, is a good medium: the _Herald_, _Post_, and _Advertiser_ must likewise be included;--and it would be folly to omit the _Sun_, _Globe_, and _Standard_.” “Well--and what about the _Daily News_ and the _Express_?” asked Mr. Styles, apparently astonished that no reference should have been made to those print.