not a better billiard-player, as the admiring Titmouse had had several painful opportunities of judging. He was a great patron of the ring--knowing all their secrets--all their haunts. He always had plenty of the money of other people, and drove about in a most elegant cab, in which Titmouse had often had a seat; and as soon as Mr. Yahoo had extracted from his communicative little companion all about himself, that astute gentleman made it his business to conciliate Titmouse's good graces by all the arts of which he was master--and he succeeded. The other chosen companion of our friend was Mr. ALGERNON FITZ-SNOOKS; a complete fool. He was the sole child of a rich tradesman--who had christened him by the sounding name given above; and afterwards added the patrician prefix to the surname, which also you see above, in order to gratify his wife and son. The youth had never "taken to business"--but was allowed to saunter about, doing, and knowing, nothing, till about his twenty-second year, when his mother died, as also a year afterwards did his father, bequeathing to his hopeful son some fifty thousand pounds--absolutely and uncontrolledly. Mr. Algernon Fitz-Snooks very judiciously thought that youth was the time to enjoy life; and before he had reached his thirtieth year, he had got through all his fortune except about five or six thousand pounds--in return for which, he had certainly got _something_; viz. an impaired constitution and a little experience, which _might_, possibly, at some future time, be useful. He had a pleasing face, regular features, and interesting eyes; his light hair curled "deliciously;" and he spoke in a sort of lisp and in a low tone--and, in point of dress, always "turned out" beautifully. _He_, also, had a cab, and was a great friend of Mr. Yahoo, who had introduced him into a great deal of high society, principally in St. James's Street; where both he and Mr. Yahoo had passed a great deal of their time, especially during the night! There was no intentional _mischief_ in poor Fitz-Snooks: nature had made him only a fool--his prudent parents had done the rest; and if he fell into vice, it was only because--as people say--"he couldn't help it." Such were the chosen companions of Titmouse; the one a fool, the other a rogue--and "he _must_," he said, "have them down to the _jollifying_ at Yatton." A groom and a valet--both impudent knaves, and both newly hired the day before--would complete the party of the morrow. Gammon assured Titmouse that he had taken all the pains in the world to get up a triumphant entry into Yatton; his agents at Grilston, Messrs. Bloodsuck and Son--the Radical electioneering attorneys of the county--who were well versed in the matter of processions, bands, flags, &c. &c. &c., had by that time arranged everything, and they were to be met, when within a mile of Yatton, by a grand procession. The people at the Hall, also, were under orders from Mr. Gammon, through Messrs. Bloodsuck and Son, to