‘Ah, well,’ said Beauchamp, swinging on his heel, ’and now I’ll take my leave of you, and I apologize for bringing you down here so early.  Please attend to what I have said; it’s peremptory.  You will give me great pleasure by dining with me to-night, at the hotel opposite.  Will you?  I don’t know what kind of wine I shall be able to offer you.  Perhaps you know the cellar, and may help me in that.’

Timothy grasped his hand, ’With pleasure, Commander Beauchamp.  They have a bucellas over there that ’s old, and a tolerable claret, and a Port to be inquired for under the breath, in a mysteriously intimate tone of voice, as one says, “I know of your treasure, and the corner under ground where it lies.”  Avoid the champagne:  ’tis the banqueting wine.  Ditto the sherry.  One can drink them, one can drink them.’

‘At a quarter to eight this evening, then,’ said Nevil.

‘I’ll be there at the stroke of the clock, sure as the date of a bill,’ said Timothy.

And it’s early to guess whether you’ll catch Bevisham or you won’t, he reflected, as he gazed at the young gentleman crossing the road; but female Bevisham’s with you, if that counts for much.  Timothy confessed, that without the employment of any weapon save arrogance and a look of candour, the commander had gone some way toward catching the feminine side of himself.

CHAPTER XV

CECILIA HALKETT

Beauchamp walked down to the pier, where he took a boat for H.M.S.  Isis, to see Jack Wilmore, whom he had not met since his return from his last cruise, and first he tried the efficacy of a dive in salt water, as a specific for irritation.  It gave the edge to a fine appetite that he continued to satisfy while Wilmore talked of those famous dogs to which the navy has ever been going.

‘We want another panic, Beauchamp,’ said Lieutenant Wilmore.  ’No one knows better than you what a naval man has to complain of, so I hope you’ll get your Election, if only that we may reckon on a good look-out for the interests of the service.  A regular Board with a permanent Lord High Admiral, and a regular vote of money to keep it up to the mark.  Stick to that.  Hardist has a vote in Bevisham.  I think I can get one or two more.  Why aren’t you a Tory?  No Whigs nor Liberals look after us half so well as the Tories.  It’s enough to break a man’s heart to see the troops of dockyard workmen marching out as soon as ever a Liberal Government marches in.  Then it’s one of our infernal panics again, and patch here, patch there; every inch of it make-believe!  I’ll prove to you from examples that the humbug of Government causes exactly the same humbugging workmanship.  It seems as if it were a game of “rascals all.”  Let them sink us! but, by heaven! one can’t help feeling for the country.  And I do say it’s the doing of those Liberals.  Skilled workmen, mind you, not to be netted again so easily.