rd all about me.' 'You are the gentleman
residing on Clapham Green,' resumed Bantam, 'who lost the use of his
limbs from imprudently taking cold after port wine; who could not be
moved in consequence of acute suffering, and who had the water from the
king's bath bottled at one hundred and three degrees, and sent by wagon
to his bedroom in town, where he bathed, sneezed, and the same day
recovered. Very remarkable!'

Mr. Pickwick acknowledged the compliment which the supposition implied,
but had the self-denial to repudiate it, notwithstanding; and taking
advantage of a moment's silence on the part of the M.C., begged to
introduce his friends, Mr. Tupman, Mr. Winkle, and Mr. Snodgrass. An
introduction which overwhelmed the M.C. with delight and honour.

'Bantam,' said Mr. Dowler, 'Mr. Pickwick and his friends are strangers.
They must put their names down. Where's the book?'

'The register of the distinguished visitors in Ba-ath will be at the
Pump Room this morning at two o'clock,' replied the M.C. 'Will you guide
our friends to that splendid building, and enable me to procure their
autographs?'

'I will,' rejoined Dowler. 'This is a long call. It's time to go. I
shall be here again in an hour. Come.'

'This is a ball-night,' said the M.C., again taking Mr. Pickwick's hand,
as he rose to go. 'The ball-nights in Ba-ath are moments snatched from
paradise; rendered bewitching by music, beauty, elegance, fashion,
etiquette, and--and--above all, by the absence of tradespeople, who
are quite inconsistent with paradise, and who have an amalgamation of
themselves at the Guildhall every fortnight, which is, to say the least,
remarkable. Good-bye, good-bye!' and protesting all the way downstairs
that he was most satisfied, and most delighted, and most overpowered,
and most flattered, Angelo Cyrus Bantam, Esquire, M.C., stepped into a
very elegant chariot that waited at the door, and rattled off.

At the appointed hour, Mr. Pickwick and his friends, escorted by Dowler,
repaired to the Assembly Rooms, and wrote their names down in the
book--an instance of condescension at which Angelo Bantam was even more
overpowered than before. Tickets of admission to that evening's assembly
were to have been prepared for the whole party, but as they were not
ready, Mr. Pickwick undertook, despite all the protestations to the
contrary of Angelo Bantam, to send Sam for them at four o'clock in the
afternoon, to the M.C.'s house in Queen Square