Moreover, the month of September was drawing nigh; he had plenty to think of.  The entire land (signifying all but all of those who occupy the situation of thinkers in it) may be said to have been exhaling the same thought in connection with September.  Our England holds possession of a considerable portion of the globe, and it keeps the world in awe to see her bestowing so considerable a portion of her intelligence upon her recreations.  To prosecute them with her whole heart is an ingenious exhibition of her power.  Mr. Romfrey was of those who said to his countrymen, ’Go yachting; go cricketing; go boat-racing; go shooting; go horseracing, nine months of the year, while the other Europeans go marching and drilling.’  Those occupations he considered good for us; and our much talking, writing, and thinking about them characteristic, and therefore good.  And he was not one of those who do penance for that sweating indolence in the fits of desperate panic.  Beauchamp’s argument that the rich idler begets the idling vagabond, the rich wagerer the brutal swindler, the general thirst for a mad round of recreation a generally-increasing disposition to avoid serious work, and the unbraced moral tone of the country an indifference to national responsibility (an argument doubtless extracted from Shrapnel, talk tall as the very demagogue when he stood upright), Mr. Romfrey laughed at scornfully, affirming that our manufactures could take care of themselves.  As for invasion, we are circled by the sea.  Providence has done that for us, and may be relied on to do more in an emergency.—­The children of wealth and the children of the sun alike believe that Providence is for them, and it would seem that the former can do without it less than the latter, though the former are less inclined to give it personification.

This year, however, the array of armaments on the Continent made Mr. Romfrey anxious about our navy.  Almost his first topic in welcoming Colonel Halkett and Cecilia to Steynham was the rottenness of navy administration; for if Providence is to do anything for us it must have a sea-worthy fleet for the operation.  How loudly would his contemptuous laughter have repudiated the charge that he trusted to supernatural agency for assistance in case of need!  But so it was:  and he owned to believing in English luck.  Partly of course he meant that steady fire of combat which his countrymen have got heated to of old till fortune blessed them.

‘Nevil is not here?’ the colonel asked.

’No, I suspect he’s gruelling and plastering a doctor of his acquaintance,’ Mr. Romfrey said, with his nasal laugh composed of scorn and resignation.

‘Yes, yes, I’ve heard,’ said Colonel Halkett hastily.

He would have liked to be informed of Dr. Shrapnel’s particular offence:  he mentioned the execrable letter.

Mr. Romfrey complacently interjected:  ‘Drug-vomit!’ and after an interval:  ‘Gallows!’