, to
the worm in our ships' timbers, and to lamentable afflictions of the human
frame, and of sheep, oxen, honest hounds. Manchester was in eclipse. The world
of England discovered that the peace-party which opposed was the actual cause of
the war: never was indication clearer. But my business is with Mr. Beauchamp, to
know whom, and partly understand his conduct in after-days, it will be as well
to take a bird's-eye glance at him through the war.
    »Now,« said Everard, »we shall see what stuff there is in that fellow
Nevil.«
    He expected, as you may imagine, a true young Beauchamp-Romfrey to be
straining his collar like a leash-hound.
 

                                   Chapter IV

                          A Glimpse of Nevil in Action

The young gentleman to whom Everard Romfrey transferred his combative spirit
despatched a letter from the Dardanelles, requesting his uncle not to ask him
for a spark of enthusiasm. He despised our Moslem allies, he said, and thought
with pity of the miserable herds of men in regiments marching across the steppes
at the bidding of a despot that we were helping to popularize. He certainly
wrote in the tone of a jejune politician; pardonable stuff to seniors
entertaining similar opinions, but most exasperating when it runs counter to
them: though one question put by Nevil was not easily answerable. He wished to
know whether the English people would be so anxious to be at it if their man
stood on the opposite shore and talked of trying conclusions on their green
fields. And he suggested that they had become so ready for war because of their
having grown rather ashamed of themselves, and for the special reason that they
could have it at a distance.
    »The rascal's liver 's out of order,« Everard said.
    Coming to the sentence: - »Who speaks out in this crisis? There is one, and
I am with him«; Mr. Romfrey's compassionate sentiments veered round to irate
amazement. For the person alluded to was indeed the infamous miauling
cotton-spinner. Nevil admired him. He said so bluntly. He pointed to that
traitorous George-Foxite as the one heroical Englishman of his day, declaring
that he felt bound in honour to make known his admiration for the man; and he
hoped his uncle would excuse him. »If we differ, I am sorry, sir; but I should
be a coward to withhold what I think of him when he has all England against him,
and he is in the right, as England will discover. I maintain he speaks