t she had not married to give England men and women
resembling her. On the whole he considered her wiser in her prescription
for the malady besetting him than his uncle. He knew that action was but
a temporary remedy. College would have been his chronic medicine, and
the old lady's acuteness in seeing it impressed him forcibly. She had
given him a peaceable two days on the Upper Thames, in an atmosphere of
plain good sense and just-mindedness. He wrote to thank her, saying:

'My England at sea will be your parlour-window looking down the grass
to the river and rushes; and when you do me the honour to write, please
tell me the names of those wildflowers growing along the banks in
Summer.' The old lady replied immediately, enclosing a cheque for fifty
pounds: 'Colonel Halkett informs me you are under a cloud at Steynham,
and I have thought you may be in want of pocket-money. The wild-flowers
are willowherb, meadow-sweet, and loosestrife. I shall be glad when you
are here in Summer to see them.'

Nevil despatched the following: 'I thank you, but I shall not cash the
cheque. The Steynham tale is this:

I happened to be out at night, and stopped the keepers in chase of a
young fellow trespassing. I caught him myself, but recognized him as one
of a family I take an interest in, and let him run before they came up.
My uncle heard a gun; I sent the head gamekeeper word in the morning to
out with it all. Uncle E. was annoyed, and we had a rough parting. If
you are rewarding me for this, I have no right to it.'

Mrs. Beauchamp rejoined: 'Your profession should teach you
subordination, if it does nothing else that is valuable to a Christian
gentleman. You will receive from the publisher the "Life and Letters
of Lord Collingwood," whom I have it in my mind that a young midshipman
should task himself to imitate. Spend the money as you think fit.'

Nevil's ship, commanded by Captain Robert Hall (a most gallant officer,
one of his heroes, and of Lancashire origin, strangely!), flew to the
South American station, in and about Lord Cochrane's waters; then as
swiftly back. For, like the frail Norwegian bark on the edge of the
maelstrom, liker to a country of conflicting interests and passions,
that is not mentally on a level with its good fortune, England was
drifting into foreign complications. A paralyzed Minister proclaimed it.
The governing people, which is looked to for direction in grave dilemmas
by its representatives and refl