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68 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 of 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 entré. 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