ring that
England must be known for the assailant in war: she was to 'ray out' her
worrying fleets. 'The defensive is perilous policy in war': he had
said it. She recollected also her childish ridicule of his excess of
emphasis: he certainly had foresight.'

Mr. Austin and Mr. Tuckham came strolling in conversation round the
house to the terrace. Beauchamp bowed to the former, nodded to the
latter, scrutinizing him after he had done so, as if the flash of a
thought were in his mind. Tuckham's radiant aspect possibly excited it:
'Congratulate me!' was the honest outcry of his face and frame. He
was as over-flowingly rosy as a victorious candidate at the hustings
commencing a speech. Cecilia laid her hand on an urn, in dread of the
next words from either of the persons present. Her father put an arm in
hers, and leaned on her. She gazed at her chamber window above, wishing
to be wafted thither to her seclusion within. The trembling limbs of
physical irresoluteness was a new experience to her.

'Anything else in the paper, colonel? I've not seen it to-day,' said
Beauchamp, for the sake of speaking.

'No, I don't think there's anything,' Colonel Halkett replied. 'Our
diplomatists haven't been shining much: that 's not our forte.'

'No: it's our field for younger sons.'

'Is it? Ah! There's an expedition against the hilltribes in India,
and we're such a peaceful nation, eh? We look as if we were in for a
complication with China.'

'Well, sir, we must sell our opium.'

'Of course we must. There's a man writing about surrendering Gibraltar!'

'I'm afraid we can't do that.'

'But where do you draw the line?' quoth Tuckham, very susceptible to
a sneer at the colonel, and entirely ignorant of the circumstances
attending Beauchamp's position before him. 'You defend the Chinaman; and
it's questionable if his case is as good as the Spaniard's.'

'The Chinaman has a case against our traders. Gibraltar concerns our
imperial policy.'

'As to the case against the English merchants, the Chinaman is for
shutting up his millions of acres of productive land, and the action of
commerce is merely a declaration of a universal public right, to which
all States must submit.'

'Immorality brings its punishment, be sure of that. Some day we shall
have enough of China. As to the Rock, I know the argument; I may be
wrong. I've had the habit of regarding it as necessary to our naval
supremacy.'

'Come! there we agree.'

'I'm not so