rsue. Don't let her fancy you entirely hers; rouse her
jealousy, pique her pride, let her think you unconquerable, and unless
she is unlike all women, she will want to conquer you."

The earl smiled. "I must take my chance!" said he, with a confident
tone.

"The hoary coxcomb!" muttered Brandon, between his teeth; "now will his
folly spoil all."

"And that reminds me," continued Mauleverer, "that time wanes, and
dinner is not over; let us not hurry, but let us be silent, to enjoy the
more. These truffles in champagne,--do taste them; they would raise the
dead."

The lawyer smiled, and accepted the kindness, though he left the
delicacy untouched; and Mauleverer, whose soul was in his plate, saw not
the heartless rejection.

Meanwhile the youthful beauty had already entered the theatre of
pleasure, and was now seated with the squire at the upper end of the
half-filled ball-room.

A gay lady of the fashion at that time, and of that half and half rank
to which belonged the aristocracy of Bath,--one of those curious persons
we meet with in the admirable novels of Miss Burney, as appertaining
to the order of fine ladies,--made the trio with our heiress and her
father, and pointed out to them by name the various characters that
entered the apartments. She was still in the full tide of scandal, when
an unusual sensation was visible in the environs of the door; three
strangers of marked mien, gay dress, and an air which, though differing
in each, was in all alike remarkable for a sort of "dashing" assurance,
made their entree. One was of uncommon height, and possessed of
an exceedingly fine head of hair; another was of a more quiet
and unpretending aspect, but nevertheless he wore upon his face a
supercilious yet not ill-humoured expression; the third was many years
younger than his companions, strikingly handsome in face and figure,
altogether of a better taste in dress, and possessing a manner that,
though it had equal ease, was not equally noticeable for impudence and
swagger.

"Who can those be?" said Lucy's female friend, in a wondering tone. "I
never saw them before,--they must be great people,--they have all the
airs of persons of quality! Dear, how odd that I should not know them!"

While the good lady, who, like all good ladies of that stamp, thought
people of quality had airs, was thus lamenting her ignorance of
the new-comers, a general whisper of a similar import was already
circulating round the room, "Wh