had he stated that he had been under the
roof of Dr. Shrapnel, than his unpunctuality was immediately overlooked
in the burst of impatience evoked by the name.

'That pestilent fellow!' Colonel Halkett ejaculated. 'I understand he has
had the impudence to serve a notice on Grancey Lespel about encroachments
on common land.'

Some one described Dr. Shrapnel's appearance under the flour storm.

'He deserves anything,' said the colonel, consulting his mantelpiece
clock.

Captain Baskelett observed: 'I shall have my account to settle with Dr.
Shrapnel.' He spoke like a man having a right to be indignant, but
excepting that the doctor had bestowed nicknames upon him in a speech at
a meeting, no one could discover the grounds for it. He nodded briefly. A
Radical apple had struck him on the left cheekbone as he performed his
triumphal drive through the town, and a slight disfigurement remained, to
which his hand was applied sympathetically at intervals, for the
cheek-bone was prominent in his countenance, and did not well bear
enlargement. And when a fortunate gentleman, desiring to be still more
fortunate, would display the winning amiability of his character,
distension of one cheek gives him an afflictingly false look of
sweetness.

The bent of his mind, nevertheless, was to please Miss Halkett. He would
be smiling, and intimately smiling. Aware that she had a kind of pitiful
sentiment for Nevil, he smiled over Nevil--poor Nevil! 'I give you my
word, Miss Halkett, old Nevil was off his head yesterday. I daresay he
meant to be civil. I met him; I called out to him, "Good day, cousin, I'm
afraid you're beaten" and says he, "I fancy you've gained it, uncle." He
didn't know where he was; all abroad, poor boy. Uncle!--to me!'

Miss Halkett would have accepted the instance for a proof of Nevil's
distraction, had not Mr. Seymour Austin, who sat beside her, laughed and
said to her: 'I suppose "uncle" was a chance shot, but it's equal to a
poetic epithet in the light it casts on the story.' Then it seemed to her
that Nevil had been keenly quick, and Captain Baskelett's impenetrability
was a sign of his density. Her mood was to think Nevil Beauchamp only too
quick, too adventurous and restless: one that wrecked brilliant gifts in
a too general warfare; a lover of hazards, a hater of laws. Her eyes flew
over Captain Baskelett as she imagined Nevil addressing him as uncle,
and, to put aside a spirit of mockery rising within her,