 means the certainty of food to millions of mouths, and comforts,
if not luxuries, to half the population. A safe percentage on savings is the
basis of civilization.«
    But he had bruised his eloquence, for though you may start a sermon from
stones to hit the stars, he must be a practised orator who shall descend out of
the abstract to take up a heavy lump of the concrete without unseating himself,
and he stammered and came to a flat ending: - »In such a country - well, I
venture to say, we have a right to condemn in advance disturbers of the peace,
and they must show very good cause indeed for not being summarily held to
account for their conduct.«
    The allocution was not delivered in the presence of an audience other than
sympathetic, and Miss Halkett rightly guessed that it was intended to strike
Captain Beauchamp by ricochet. He puffed at the mention of Beauchamp's name. He
had read a reported speech or two of Beauchamp's, and shook his head over a
quotation of the stuff, as though he would have sprung at him like a lion, but
for his enrolment as a constable.
    Not a whit the less did Mr. Tuckham drink his claret relishingly, and he
told stories incidental to his travels now and then, commended the fishing here,
the shooting there, and in some few places the cookery, with much bright
emphasis when it could be praised; it appeared to be an endearing recollection
to him. Still, as a man of progress, he declared his belief that we English
would ultimately turn out the best cooks, having indubitably the best material.
»Our incomprehensible political pusillanimity« was the one sad point about us:
we had been driven from surrender to surrender.
    »Like geese upon a common, I have heard it said,« Miss Halkett assisted him
to Dr. Shrapnel's comparison.
    Mr. Tuckham laughed, and half yawned and sighed, »Dear me!«
    His laughter was catching, and somehow more persuasive of the soundness of
the man's heart and head than his remarks.
    She would have been astonished to know that a gentleman so uncourtly, if not
uncouth - judged by the standard of the circle she moved in - and so unskilled
in pleasing the sight and hearing of ladies as to treat them like junior
comrades, had raised the vow within himself on seeing her: You, or no woman!
    The colonel delighted in him, both as a strong and able young fellow, and a
refreshingly aggressive recruit of his party, who was for onslaught, and invoked
common
