Beauchamp's Career -- Volume 5

OLOGY OF Mr. ROMF

itting and close wrestling, had recommenced whe

e been galloping to Bev

mf

rceiving a sign of dissatisfaction on his frien

ot dismount,'

e. It was not with my sanction.

colonel, I don't think you

nd look on men who have, ha

ly,' said

acid manner took a chair.

Stukely Culbrett turned a shee

lion's walk on the rug

ou from hearing what

suppose it was the first time for information, the second time for

ke to heart, sir; that Dr. S

, and I'll pay th

for me to treat

t's worth a purse to teach them that a lady, however feeble she may seem

id!' came from

, amazed by the commend

barously, but in error,'

ne topic for mouthing,

ill under Dr. Shrap

py the Christian

re deluded when

a w

ow it now: M

woman, Nevil

Dr. Shrapnel neither insulted

one no suc

-but I trust her

trumpeter, you

. I'll have the truth from her, and no min

king, if you can, and ha

cried B

osed the manuscript in his hands, an

bly hard to decipher. It's mild enough;

t there?' Colonel

Dr. Shrapnel on the Coun

t?' The colonel started back his cha

like to see in print. It's really not bad pulpit; and I suspect that what you object to, colonel, is only the dust of a well- thumped cushion. Shrapnel thumps

l they do

turn-cocks of one Water-compan

e foiled, arrow-like in look and readiness to repeat his home-shot. Mr. Romfrey wanted to hear more of that unintelligible 'You!' of

ed; they sting fearfully when whipped. No one listens to them now except the class that goes to sleep under them, to "set an example" to the class

ejaculated

ake, that's all. I k

's not a common s

ough to be

tion of the pair: 'Can I see you alon

here you can,' was

r your sake and mine,

, and must. You have d

have to think of your

ith respect, but wolf i

it o

rather long-

or nothing

ot nothing, at a

tly blameless; he would

t you were an engine sh

ustice to say you

're his

ardon

other

racter now you know the truth? Hesitation about it doubles the infamy.

alf a head, and

elf to give out a groan

. And he took his punishment like a man. I've known worse: and far worse: gentlemen by birth. There's the choice of taking it upright or fighting like a rabbit with a wease

them, as I understand it, the people: that's to say, the middle-class and the working-class-fat and lean. I'm quite with Shrapnel when he lashes the fleshpots. They want it, and they don

' interjected Colonel Halk

n't expose the trick? He must see through it. I like that letter of his. People is one of your Radical big words that burst at a query. He can't mean Quince, and Bottom, and Starveling, Christopher Sly, Jack Cade, Caliban, and poor old Hodge? No, no, Nevil. Our clowns are the stupidest in Europe. They can't cook their meals. They can't spell; they can scarcely speak. They haven't a jig in their legs. And I believe they're losing their grin! They're nasty when their blood's up. Shakespeare's Cade tells you what he thought of Radicalizing the people. "And as for your mother, I 'll make her a duke"; that 's one of their songs. The word p

have had a clear idea in what you have

somewhat heated him, and he protested with ea

as soon as they miss their customary incision of speech they are apt to aim to recover

reputation for epigram in a

Beauchamp. Nevertheless the end was

sionally rattling, yet all the while trying to be decorous and politic, he was getting tired. He foresaw that a

to Shrapnel?' he sai

would not

said: 'Early.' He had very particular business at home. He was positive, and declined every inducement to stay. Mr. Romf

that half-armoury, half-librar

or had Mr. Romfrey, he would not have resorted to force to punish the supposed offender, or had Nevil, he would have held his peace until he had gained his bride. As it was; the folly of the three knocked at her heart, uniting to bring the heavy accusation against one poor woman, quite in the old way: the Who is she? of the mocking Spaniard at mention of a social catastrophe. Rosamund had a great deal of the pride of her sex, and she resented any slur on it. She felt almost superciliously toward Mr. Romfrey and Nevil for their no

nce of it in this S

tune and happiness: all three owing their mischance to one or other of the vague ideas disturbing men's he

Rosamund strained her mental sight to gain a conception of his prodigious horror of the treatment of Dr. Shrapnel that she might think him sane: and to retain a vestige of comfort in her bosom she tried to moderate and make light of as much as she could conceive. Between the two efforts she had no sense but that of helplessness. Once more she was reduced to promise that she would speak the whole truth to Mr. Romfrey, even to the fact that she had experienced a common woman's jealousy of Dr. Shrapnel's influence, and had alluded to him jealously, spitefully, and falsely. There was no mercy in Beauchamp

gine Mr. Romfrey doing

ou will help him

man half as much a

n as good, as wis

e losin

ough ceremonies of court

e will feel with me. S

raid I overtasked her i

garden. Ma'am, she is u

of Dr. Shrapn

ronical, Nevil. You have

that she drew forth a sigh; she would have coloured the sketch, but h

resageing mind with unexpected issues. Rosamund fulfilled hers in the style of one who has learnt a lesson, and, exactly as she had anticipated, Mr. Romfrey

contrast, as of a grave big dog worried by a small barking dog. There is to an unsympathetic observer an intense vexatiousness in the exhibition of such pertinacity. To a soldier accustomed at a glance to estimate powers of attack and defence, this repeated p

e than deride him. He was quite untroubled. It demanded a steady view of the other side of the case to suppose of one whose control of his temper was perfect, that he could be in the wrong. He at least did not think so, a

them asunder, that she should have some minutes with Beauchamp out in the gardens. Mr. Romf

will not think it presumptio

ave Steynham immediately, and trust to ti

nter-argument of the st

ediency; he frank

a shadow of to-day; weaving a story without beginning, crisis, or conclusion, flowerless and fruitl

hould die, and repentance co

ing an unfounded apprehension. 'As far as it is in my po

ile the colonel is so strangely prepossessed. For a high-spirited gentleman like your father to approve, or at l

instantly, 'Persuade h

rar

tempted

think wise, if I am t

erwise I'm certain it would revolt him: just as I am certain my uncle Everard is at this moment a stone-blind man. If he has done a thing, he can't question it, won't

, not very warm

about. For Cecil Baskelett called on Dr. Shrapne

her to draw in her shou

n Baskelett who set this

t of her dislike, and cooling toward the woman who betrayed a vulgar characteristic of her sex; who was merely woman,

nation which excludes young women from the power to realize unwonted circumstances. We men walking about the world have perhaps no more imagin

father, and ultimately induce him, if she could, to g

the attack; hammer as he did. Yesterday she had followed him: to-day she was to march beside him-hardly as an equal. Patience! was the word she would have uttered in her detection of the one frailty in

know how to hold up my head before Miss Denham. Sh

to be thought

d discovered them pacing together in a f

d bonnet at once. Nevil, I'm sorry for this business. Good-bye. Be a good boy, Nevil,' he murmured ki

l-steps when Rosamund beckoned the latter and whispered a request

s bulging pocketbook, and added a cou

and explanations appeared imperative. It struck him in a flash that Cecilia's counsel to him to quit Steynham for awhile was good. And if he went

und, and announced to the woefully astonish colonel that he would

No packing?' s

ediments in the rear of you,

. He shouted for his daughter. The lady's ma

d the colonel; and observing Cecilia's face in full crimson, he looked at

friendly squeeze with the colonel, and offered his hand to hi

iddle of the month,' said Mr. Romfr

cousin Baskelett, give me w

he carriage wheeled round the mounded laurels to the avenue, 'He mayn't be quite cracked. The fellow see