Oh! those two horrid words! low enough to suit even the author
of"--.")

"Pray," asked I, glancing at Messrs. Ritson and Smith, "do you know who
those gentlemen are?"

"Extremely well!" replied my neighbour: "the tall young man is Mr.
Ritson; his mother has a house in Baker-street, and gives quite elegant
parties. He's a most genteel young man; but such an insufferable
coxcomb."

"And the other?" said I.

"Oh! he's a Mr. Smith; his father was an eminent merchant, and is lately
dead, leaving each of his sons thirty thousand pounds; the young Smith
is a knowing hand, and wants to spend his money with spirit. He has a
great passion for 'high life,' and therefore attaches himself much to
Mr. Ritson, who is quite that way inclined."

"He could not have selected a better model," said I.

"True," rejoined my Cheltenham Asmodeus, with naive simplicity; "but I
hope he won't adopt his conceit as well as his elegance."

"I shall die," said I to myself, "if I talk with this fellow any
longer," and I was just going to glide away, when a tall, stately
dowager, with two lean, scraggy daughters, entered the room; I could not
resist pausing to inquire who they were.

My friend looked at me with a very altered and disrespectful air at this
interrogation. "Who?" said he, "why, the Countess of Babbleton, and her
two daughters, the Honourable Lady Jane Babel, and the Honourable Lady
Mary Babel. They are the great people of Cheltenham," pursued he, "and
it's a fine thing to get into their set."

Meanwhile Lady Babbleton and her two daughters swept up the room, bowing
and nodding to the riven ranks on each side, who made their salutations
with the most profound respect. My experienced eye detected in a moment
that Lady Babbleton, in spite of her title and her stateliness, was
exceedingly the reverse of good ton, and the daughters (who did not
resemble the scrag of mutton, but its ghost) had an appearance of sour
affability, which was as different from the manners of proper society,
as it possibly could be.

I wondered greatly who and what they were. In the eyes of the
Cheltenhamians, they were the countess and her daughters; and any
further explanation would have been deemed quite superfluous; further
explanation I was, however, determined to procure, and was walking
across the room in profound meditation as to the method in which the
discovery should be made, when I was startled by the voice of Sir Lionel
Garrett: I turned round