in the commander's address. Everard laughed at them. As a practical
man, his objection lay against the poor fool's choice of the peccant
borough of Bevisham. Still, in view of the needfulness of his learning
wisdom, and rapidly, the disbursement of a lot of his money, certain to
be required by Bevisham's electors, seemed to be the surest method for
quickening his wits. Thus would he be acting as his own chirurgeon,
gaily practising phlebotomy on his person to cure him of his fever. Too
much money was not the origin of the fever in Nevil's case, but he had
too small a sense of the value of what he possessed, and the diminishing
stock would be likely to cry out shrilly.

To this effect, never complaining that Nevil Beauchamp had not come to
him to take counsel with him, the high-minded old gentleman talked. At
the same time, while indulging in so philosophical a picture of himself
as was presented by a Romfrey mildly accounting for events and smoothing
them under the infliction of an offence, he could not but feel that Nevil
had challenged him: such was the reading of it; and he waited for some
justifiable excitement to fetch him out of the magnanimous mood, rather
in the image of an angler, it must be owned.

'Nevil understands that I am not going to pay a farthing of his expenses
in Bevisham?' he said to Mrs. Culling.

She replied blandly and with innocence, 'I have not seen him, sir.'

He nodded. At the next mention of Nevil between them, he asked, 'Where
is it he's lying perdu, ma'am?'

'I fancy in that town, in Bevisham.'