lack of blood in them, to stock a raw shilling's worth or gush before
Achilles rageing. You perceive the picture, you can almost sing the
ballad. We want only a few names of the fallen. It was the carving of a
maitre chef, according to Skepsey: right-left-and point, with supreme
precision: they fell, accurately sliced from the joint. Having done with
them, Dartrey tossed the Demerara to Skepsey, and washed his hands of
battle; and he let his major go unscathed. Phlebotomy sufficient for the
day!'

Nesta's ears hummed with the name of Major Worrell.

'Skepsey did come back to London with a rather damaged frontispiece,'
Victor said. 'He can't have joined those people?'

'They may suit one of your militant peacemakers,' interposed Fenellan.
'The most placable creatures alive, and the surest for getting-up a
shindy.'

'Suit him! They're the scandal of our streets.' Victor was pricked with
a jealousy of them for beguiling him of his trusty servant.

'Look at your country, see where it shows its vitality,' said Colney.
'You don't see elsewhere any vein in movement-movement,' he harped on the
word Victor constantly employed to express the thing he wanted to see.
'Think of that, when the procession sets your teeth on edge. They're
honest foes of vice, and they move:--in England! Pulpit-preaching has no
effect. For gross maladies, gross remedies. You may judge of what you
are by the quality of the cure. Puritanism, I won't attempt to paint--
it would barely be decent; but compare it with the spectacle of English
frivolity, and you'll admit it to be the best show you make. It may