'(Eure).

'Come. I give you three days--no more.

'RENEE.'

The brevity was horrible. Did it spring from childish imperiousness or
tragic peril?

Beauchamp could imagine it to be this or that. In moments of excited
speculation we do not dwell on the possibility that there may be a
mixture of motives.

'I fear I must cross over to France this evening,' he said to Cecilia.

She replied, 'It is likely to be stormy to-night. The steamboat may not
run.'

'If there's a doubt of it, I shall find a French lugger. You are tired,
from not sleeping last night.'

'No,' she answered, and nodded to Mrs. Devereux, beside whom Mr. Lydiard
stood: 'You will not drive down alone, you see.'

For a young lady threatened with a tempest in her heart, as disturbing
to her as the one gathering in the West for ships at sea, Miss Halkett
bore herself well.

CHAPTER XXII. THE DRIVE INTO BEVISHAM

Beauchamp was requested by Cecilia to hold the reins. His fair companion
in the pony-carriage preferred to lean back musing, and he had leisure
to think over the blow dealt him by his uncle Everard with so sure an
aim so ringingly on the head. And in the first place he made no attempt
to disdain it because it was nothing but artful and heavy-handed, after
the mediaeval pattern. Of old he himself had delighted in artfulness as
well as boldness and the unmistakeable hit. Highly to prize generalship
was in his blood, though latterly the very forces propelling him to his
political warfare had forbidden the use of it to him. He saw the patient
veteran laying his gun for a long shot--to give as good as he had
received; and in realizing Everard Romfrey's perfectly placid bearing
under provocation, such as he certainly would have maintained while
preparing his reply to it, the raw fighting humour of the plot touched
the sense of justice in Beauchamp enough to make him own that he had
been the first to offend.

He could reflect also on the likelihood that other offended men of his
uncle's age and position would have sulked or stormed, threatening the
Parthian shot of the vindictive testator. If there was godlessness in
turning to politics for a weapon to strike a domestic blow, manfulness
in some degree signalized it. Beauchamp could fancy his uncle crying
out, Who set the example? and he was not at that instant inclined to
dwell on the occult virtues of the example he had set. To be honest,
this elevation o