are fools:  and some are knaves.  We perish as a Great Power if we cease to look sharp ahead, hold firm together, and make the utmost of what we possess.  The word for the performance of those duties is Toryism:  a word with an older flavour than Conservatism, and Mr. Tuckham preferred it.  By all means let workmen be free men but a man must earn his freedom daily, or he will become a slave in some form or another:  and the way to earn it is by work and obedience to right direction.  In a country like ours, open on all sides to the competition of intelligence and strength, with a Press that is the voice of all parties and of every interest; in a country offering to your investments three and a half and more per cent., secure as the firmament!

He perceived an amazed expression on Miss Halkett’s countenance; and ‘Ay,’ said he, ’that 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!