he's a mad dentist poking his tongs at my sound tooth:' a highly
ludicrous image of the persistent fellow, and a reminder of situations in
Moliere, as it was acted by Cecil Baskelett and Lord Welshpool.
Beauchamp had to a certain extent restored himself to favour with his
uncle Everard by offering a fair suggestion on the fatal field to account
for the accident, after the latter had taken measurements and examined
the place in perplexity. His elucidation of the puzzle was referred to
by Lord Avonley at Romfrey, and finally accepted as possible and this
from a wiseacre who went quacking about the county, expecting to upset
the order of things in England! Such a mixing of sense and nonsense in a
fellow's noddle was never before met with, Lord Avonley said. Cecil took
the hint. He had been unworried by Beauchamp: Dr. Shrapnel had not been
mentioned: and it delighted Cecil to let it be known that he thought old
Nevil had some good notions, particularly as to the duties of the
aristocracy--that first war-cry of his when a midshipman. News of
another fatal accident in the hunting-field confirmed Cecil's higher
opinion of his cousin. On the day of Craven's funeral they heard at
Romfrey that Mr. Wardour-Devereux had been killed by a fall from his
horse. Two English gentlemen despatched by the same agency within a
fortnight! 'He smoked,' Lord Avonley said of the second departure, to
allay some perturbation in the bosoms of the ladies who had ceased to
ride, by accounting for this particular mishap in the most reassuring
fashion. Cecil's immediate reflection was that the unfortunate smoker
had left a rich widow. Far behind in the race for Miss Halkett, and
uncertain of a settled advantage in his other rivalry with Beauchamp, he
fixed his mind on the widow, and as Beauchamp did not stand in his way,
but on the contrary might help him--for she, like the generality of
women, admired Nevil Beauchamp in spite of her feminine good sense and
conservatism--Cecil began to regard the man he felt less opposed to with
some recognition of his merits. The two nephews accompanied Lord Avonley