"Delightful young man, his lordship," said the Master of the Ceremonies.
"So I should think," rejoined Mr. Pickwick, drily.
The dancing having commenced, the necessary introductions having been made, and all preliminaries arranged, Angelo Bantam rejoined Mr. Pickwick, and led him into the card-room.
Just at the very moment of their entrance, the Dowager Lady Snuphanuph and two other ladies of an ancient and whist-like appearance, were hovering over an unoccupied card-table; and they no sooner set eyes upon Mr. Pickwick under the convoy of Angelo Bantam, than they exchanged glances with each other, seeing that he was precisely the very person they wanted, to make up the rubber.
"My dear Bantam," said the Dowager Lady Snuphanuph, coaxingly, "find us some nice creature to make up this table; there's a good soul." Mr. Pickwick happened to be looking another way at the moment, so her ladyship nodded her head towards him, and frowned expressively.
"My friend, Mr. Pickwick, my lady, will be most happy, I am sure, re--markably so," said the M.C., taking the hint. "Mr. Pickwick, Lady Snuphanuph--Mrs. Colonel Wugsby--Miss Bolo."
Mr. Pickwick bowed to each of the ladies, and, finding escape impossible, cut. Mr. Pickwick and Miss Bolo against Lady Snuphanuph and Mrs. Colonel Wugsby.
As the trump card was turned up at the commencement of the second deal, two young ladies hurried into the room, and took their stations on either side of Mrs. Colonel Wugsby's chair, where they waited patiently until the hand was over.
"Now, Jane," said Mrs. Colonel Wugsby, turning to one of the girls, "what is it?"
"I came to ask, ma, whether I might dance with the youngest Mr. Crawley," whispered the prettier and younger of the two.
"Good God, Jane, how can you think of such things?" replied the mamma, indignantly. "Haven't you repeatedly heard that his father has eight hundred a-year, which dies with him? I am ashamed of you. Not on any account."
"Ma," whispered the other, who was much older than her sister and very insipid and artificial, "Lord Mutanhed has been introduced to me. I said I _thought_ I wasn't engaged, ma."
"You're a sweet pet, my love," replied Mrs. Colonel Wugsby, tapping her daughter's cheek with her fan, "and are always to be trusted. He's immensely rich, my dear. Bless you!" With these words Mrs. Colonel Wugsby kissed her eldest daughter most affectionately, and frowning, in a warning manner, upon the other, sorted her cards.