I ventured to say something, I know not what, but my remark was my own; I was not to be found, I suppose, in the common-place book acknowledged at present, as the reception that it encountered was a rude burst of laughter, in which my fair antagonist's mamma, who came to present Lord Oldfield to her daughter, joined immediately, and I should have been the _butt_ of the company, I conclude, if my happy stars had not sent a nobleman to my rescue, who so entirely engrossed the attention of both mother and _ma'mselle_, that a _mouse_ would have been a greater object than I was. Otway's lines rushed on my memory as I gazed indignantly on this vulgar pair; for how can I give them any more appropriate epithet? When I looked around me, and rested my eyes on the _wool-pack_, matrons lounging in their easy chairs so large and languid, I could not help mentally exclaiming, "Those lazy owls, who, perched near Fortune's top, Sit only watchful with their heavy wings To cuff down new-fledged Virtues that would rise To nobler heights, and make the grove harmonious." I suppose that the immense size of the elderly ladies here, must proceed, from the little exercise they take, and _that_ little in a carriage which is next to not taking any; but I am told that it is the fashion to be _monstrous_, and if beauty be reckoned by weight and measure, the tonnage and poundage of London are prodigious. When Lord Oldfield left my aunt's to vapour at another party, the above-mentioned young lady of pensive mien, seemed to recollect that she had treated me somewhat cavalierly, or perhaps she was amused by my _outlandish_ ways of thinking, and returned to look at me, as people used to do at the Cherokee chiefs, or Sandwich Islanders; but from whatever motive, so it was, that she called me to her, and with a smile of such _concentration_ as appeared to say, "_Sauve qui peut_," she invited me to attend her to-day and look at some statues, at the house of an Italian newly arrived. Now I had charity enough to believe that she had only _heard_ of them as fine specimens of sculpture, and was ignorant altogether of what she was going to see; but before I could reply, she added that she had begun to model from a Cupid in the collection, and hoped that I should approve her performance. Arthur and I had been to see these statues two or three days ago, and all I can say is, that as I have not yet had the advantage of _case-hardening_ on the continent, I blushed as I bowed a seeming assent, resolving to make my excuse this morning, which I have accordingly done.