was to distinguish one or other
of them as Irish, Scottish, or Cambrian. He considered it a dismemberment of the
country. And notwithstanding the pleasure he had in uniting in his person the
strong red blood of the chivalrous Lord Beauchamp with the hard and tenacious
Romfrey blood, he hated the title of Norman. We are English-British, he said. A
family resting its pride on mere ancestry provoked his contempt, if it did not
show him one of his men. He had also a disposition to esteem lightly the family
which, having produced a man, settled down after that effort for generations to
enjoy the country's pay. Boys are unjust; but Nevil thought of the country
mainly, arguing that we should not accept the country's money for what we do not
ourselves perform. These traits of his were regarded as characteristics hopeful
rather than the reverse; none of his friends and relatives foresaw danger in
them. He was a capital boy for his elders to trot out and banter.
    Mrs. Rosamund Culling usually went to his room to see him and doat on him
before he started on his rounds of an evening. She suspected that his necessary
attention to his toilet would barely have allowed him time to finish his copy of
the letter. Certain phrases had bothered him. The thrice recurrence of ma patrie
jarred on his ear. Sentiments afflicted his acute sense of the declamatory
twice. »C'est avec les sentiments du plus profond regret«: and again, »Je suis
bien sûr que vous comprendrez mes sentiments, et m'accorderez l'honneur que je
réclame au nom de ma patrie outragée.« The word patrie was broadcast over the
letter, and honneur appeared four times, and a more delicate word to harp on
than the others!
    »Not to Frenchmen,« said his friend Rosamund. »I would put Je suis
convaincu: it is not so familiar.«
    »But I have written out the fair copy, ma'am, and that alteration seems a
trifle.«
    »I would copy it again and again, Nevil, to get it right.«
    »No: I 'd rather see it off than have it right,« said Nevil, and he folded
the letter.
    How the deuce to address it, and what direction to write on it, were further
difficulties. He had half a mind to remain at home to conquer them by
excogitation.
    Rosamund urged him not to break his engagement to dine at the Halketts',
where perhaps from his friend Colonel Halkett, who would never imagine the
reason for the inquiry, he