transient guests of the house, to pour forth his impressions without
holding up his kinsman to public scorn. He considered Shrapnel mad and
Beauchamp mad. No such grotesque old monster as Dr. Shrapnel had he seen
in the course of his travels. He had never listened to a madman running
loose who was at all up to Beauchamp. At a loss for words to paint him,
he said: 'Beauchamp seems to have a head like a firework manufactory,
he's perfectly pyrocephalic.' For an example of Dr. Shrapnel's talk: 'I
happened,' said Mr. Tuckham, 'casually, meaning no harm, and not
supposing I was throwing a lighted match on powder, to mention the word
Providence. I found myself immediately confronted by Shrapnel--
overtopped, I should say. He is a lank giant of about seven feet in
height; the kind of show man that used to go about in caravans over the
country; and he began rocking over me like a poplar in a gale, and cries
out: "Stay there! away with that! Providence? Can you set a thought on
Providence, not seeking to propitiate it? And have you not there the
damning proof that you are at the foot of an Idol?"--The old idea about a
special Providence, I suppose. These fellows have nothing new but their
trimmings. And he went on with: "Ay, invisible," and his arm chopping,
"but an Idol! an Idol!"--I was to think of "nought but Laws." He
admitted there might be one above the Laws. "To realize him is to fry
the brains in their pan," says he, and struck his forehead--a slap: and
off he walked down the garden, with his hands at his coat-tails. I
venture to say it may be taken for a proof of incipient insanity to care
to hear such a fellow twice. And Beauchamp holds him up for a sage and a
prophet!'

'He is a very dangerous dog,' said Colonel Halkett.

'The best of it is--and I take this for the strongest possible proof that
Beauchamp is mad--Shrapnel stands for an advocate of morality against