 for the assailant in war:
she was to ray out her worrying fleets. »The defensive is perilous policy in war
«: he had said it. She recollected also her childish ridicule of his excess of
emphasis: he certainly had foresight.
    Mr. Austin and Mr. Tuckham came strolling in conversation round the house to
the terrace. Beauchamp bowed to the former, nodded to the latter, scrutinizing
him after he had done so, as if the flash of a thought were in his mind.
Tuckham's radiant aspect possibly excited it: »Congratulate me!« was the honest
outcry of his face and frame. He was as overflowingly rosy as a victorious
candidate at the hustings commencing a speech. Cecilia laid her hand on an urn,
in dread of the next words from either of the persons present. Her father put an
arm in hers, and leaned on her. She gazed at her chamber window above, wishing
to be wafted thither to her seclusion within. The trembling limbs of physical
irresoluteness was a new experience to her.
    »Anything else in the paper, colonel? I 've not seen it to-day,« said
Beauchamp, for the sake of speaking.
    »No, I don't think there 's anything,« Colonel Halkett replied. »Our
diplomatists haven't been shining much: that 's not our forte.«
    »No: it 's our field for younger sons.«
    »Is it? Ah! There 's an expedition against the hill-tribes in India, and we
're such a peaceful nation, eh? We look as if we were in for a complication with
China.«
    »Well, sir, we must sell our opium.«
    »Of course we must. There 's a man writing about surrendering Gibraltar!«
    »I 'm afraid we can't do that.«
    »But where do you draw the line?« quoth Tuckham, very susceptible to a sneer
at the colonel, and entirely ignorant of the circumstances attending Beauchamp's
position before him. »You defend the Chinaman; and it 's questionable if his
case is as good as the Spaniard's.«
    »The Chinaman has a case against our traders. Gibraltar concerns our
imperial policy.«
    »As to the case against the English merchants, the Chinaman is for shutting
up his millions of acres of productive land, and the action of commerce is
merely a declaration of a universal public right, to which all States must
submit.«
    »Immorality brings its punishment, be sure of that.
