Beauchamp's Career -- Volume 2

ia; and by him, as it happened, she was assisted in finding the whereabout of the young Liberal candidate, without the degrading recourse of an application at the newspaper-office of his party. The

f Miss Denham pleasantly two or three times, praising her accomplishments and her winning manners. His hearer suspected that it might be done to dissoci

y pr

pretty,' sai

ivati

in Paris. But, if you are interested about her, you can come on with me, and we shall meet them somewhe

her name before to

l, crowing at the aimlessn

a girl of this description might capture a young man's vacant heart sighing for a new mistress. And if so, further observation assured her Miss Denham was likely to be dangerous far more than professedly attractive persons, enchantresses and the rest. Rosamund watchfully gathered all the superficial indications which incite women to judge of character profoundly. This new object of alarm was, as the General had said of her, tall and slim, a friend of neatness, plainly dressed, but exquisitely fitted, in the manner of Frenchwomen. She spo

'I am an old

e now, in

see him v

e won't talk about political c

apa, and would advise h

d hastily. 'By-an

op, where dashing military men were restrained solely by their presence fro

, thankful to have been comprehended. The two young ladies kissed cheeks and parted. General Sherwin raised his hat, and was astonished to see Mrs. Culling j

Beauchamp,' Rosamund addressed her companion. 'I am his uncle's housekeeper. I have kn

speaking to me so frankl

bent upon t

suppose, in his confidence, but

r un

le: he is my gu

id not cause the doctor to shine with added lustre

relatives, th

love can m

ood-rel

N

very . .

very si

you are a p

uld you pardon me, mada

was a fair retort enf

ad to do with wits as we

he person of th

opinion that our sex mig

ties,' Miss Denham followed. 'It seems to be a

said why she was sensible of anger, but the sentiment of anger, or spite (if that be a lesser degree of the same affliction), became stirred in her boso

ere. He had been absent since eight in the morning. There was the p

ives himself no rest

nce his mind is set on

to begin to-canvass,

own can teach him of its wants

e town will not ha

ter, until that has been decided,

e? I mean, of course, y

pnel

time for Captain Beauchamp to grow familiar

if Captain Beauchamp

el's p

nel should know more of political way

ge that he should have decided to contest this election so suddenly

had never met before Captain Be

of an influence that induces him to abandon a profession

was silent,

hey choose to come, and they generally do. They are driven to Northeden Heath, where we set up a booth for them, and try with cakes and tea and games to make them spend one of their h

a hearing?' R

d to address, madam, and he is m

m of politics on

thinks, that in a so-called free country seeking to be really free, men

women

dam, we notice that the wom

n put on

isten is something. They suffer like the men, and must d

clamatory: What can be the a

lending ear to the echo of the dangerous doctor, and rather pitied Miss Denham for awhile, reflecting that a young

'and when Dr. Shrapnel concluded a card was handed to him. He read it and gave it to me

for the words he had spoken. I saw that Dr. Shrapnel became interested in Captain Beauchamp the longer they conversed. We walked home together. Captain Beauchamp supped with us. I left them at half-past eleven at

r lips from utterin

hrapn

e is very eloque

ome debate with he

uence; he often . . . n

d that he was per

d of importance-an instance of a want of delicacy of perception Rosamund was not sorry to detect. For good-looking, refined- looking, quick-witted girls can be gro

y with him, or whose condition of mind calls on h

uld so rapidly have won Captain Beauchamp to his views

so that the doctor, while protecting his own, might see and be seen of the world, as was the case when Rosamund approached. He was pacing at long slow strides along the gravel walk, with h

ain Beauchamp's f

ot he,' said

le. She warmed to her at once; by no m

d too fast fo

cused of being

econd thoughts, she reflected that she could hardly stipulate to

hamp, she observed the greeting between Miss Denham and the younger

lean and wiry, carelessly clad in a long loose

ting and military gentlemen, who can be all in the words they utter. Nevertheless he came out of his lizard-like look with the down-dropped eyelids quick at a resumption of the dialogue; sometimes gesturing, sweeping his arm round. A stubborn tuft of iron-grey hair fell across his forehead, and it was apparently one of his life's labours to get it to lie amid the mass, for his hand rarely ceased to be in motion without an impulsive stroke at the refractory forelock. He peered through his e

d the welcome of his house to the lady who was Captain Beauchamp's friend, saying, with extraordinary fatuity (so it sounded in Rosamund's ears),

nightfall,' said the doctor. '

ld like to have seen him to-day

his Election's decided unless to

to Moun

hat pu

suade Colonel Halkett to vo

ether the door opens or not. Like,' the doctor laughed to himself up aloft,

his family about so serious a step as this he is

' asked the im

finite reply to so outrageous a question irritated Rosamund's nerves, and, loth though she was to admit hi

y. It is no other view than, "Better thy condition for our sakes." Ha! In this way we breed sheep, fatten oxen: men are dying off. Resolution taken, consult the family means-waste your time! Those who go to it want an excuse for altering their minds. The family view is everlastingly the shopkeeper's! Purse, pence, ease, increase of worldly goods, personal importance-the pound, the English pound! Dare do that, and you forfeit your share of Port wine in this world; you won't be dubbed with a title; you'll be fingered at! Lord, Lord! is it the region inside a man, or out, that gives him peace? Out, they say; for they have lost faith in the exis

Rosamund, very tightly compresse

tended to appreciate but to possess him! A stranger, a man of evil, with monstrous ideas! A terribly str

ad an enormous army, quite overwhelming if it could but be got to move in advance. This very common condition of the silent-stricken, unused in dialectics, heightened Rosamund's disgust by causing her to suppose that Nevil had been similarly silenced, in his case vanquished

m the man she loved. Rosamund went through these emotions altogether on Nevil's behalf, and longe

o look to? To whom but

his love of combat, his old knightly blood, was not he a match, and an overmatch, for the ramping Radical who had tangled Nevil in his rough snares? She ran her mind over Mr. Romfrey's virtues, down even to his towerin

Shrapnel to Miss Denham, and carr

her antagonism. The sun descended. She heard the doctor reciting. Could it be poetry? In her imagination the sombre hues surrounding an incendiary opp

ey his own?'-a piece of satiric innocency at which

she had not heard them

n by the gentlem

e writes, but the v

has he met Cap

uchamp has taken a grea

aken a long start of Nevil in the heart of Miss Denham: and struggling to be candid, to ensure some meditative satisfaction, Rosamund admitted to herself that the girl did not appear to be one

Miss Denham mentioned it, and the doctor, presently sauntering up, invited Rosamund to a

o him over the millions of miles, with one touch of the chords, as quick as he shoots a beam on us. Ay! on her wretched tinkler called a piano, which tries at the whole

the organ?-I fear I cannot

am not so perfect a player that I should wish it-but to se

ve an appointment with h

cts. Say that an organ is a despotism, just as your piano is the Constitutional bourgeois. Match them with the trained orchestral band of skilled individual performers, indoors or out, where each grasps his instrument, and each relies on his fellow with confidence, and an unrivalled concord comes of it. That is our republic each one to his work; all in union! There's the motto for us! Then you have music, harmony, the highest, fullest, finest! Educate your men to form a band, you shame dexterous trickery and imitation sounds. Then for the difference of real instruments from clever shams! Oh, ay, one wi

of composed simplicity: she thanked her more for cutting short the doctor's fanatical nonsense. It was perceptible to her that a species of mad metaphor had been wriggling and tearing its passage through a thorn-bush in his discourse, with the furious urgency of a

nd his eyes upturned in dim speculation. His great feet planted on their heels faced him, suggesting the stocks; his arms hung loose. Full many a hero of the

on as the terminating notes

oncluding his devotions bef

an, they that hold power. They shudder to think the conservatism of the earth will be shaken by a change; they dread they won't get men with souls to fetch and carry, dig, root, mine, for them. Right!-what then? Digging and mining will be done; so will harping and singing. But then we have a natural optimacy! Then, on the one hand, we whip the man-beast and the man-sl

ch remarks addressed to her pro

Lydiard; and Miss Denham, who had returned, be

ne, 'I am very anxious

amp, m

ant that she should not have to confess a visit to Bevisham now when she had so little of favourable to tell Mr. Everard Romfrey of his chosen nephew. Whether she had acted quite wisely in not remaining to see Nevil, was an agitating question that had to be silenced by an appeal to her instincts of repulsion, and a further appeal for justification of them to her imaginary sisterhood of gossips. How could she sit and eat, how pass an evening in that house, in the so

re he should run the risk

s no other opiate for Rosamund's blame of herself

r instincts, and then have to soothe conscience, we must slaugh