'So I thought,' Mr. Tuckham responded. 'One doesn't want the man to be hurt, but he ought to be put down in some way. My belief is he's a Fire- worshipper. I warrant I would extinguish him if he came before me. He's an incendiary, at any rate.'
'Do you think,' said Cecilia, 'that Captain Beauchamp is now satisfied with his experience of politics?'
'Dear me, no,' said Mr. Tuckham. 'It's the opening of a campaign. He's off to the North, after he has been to Sussex and Bucks. He's to be at it all his life. One thing he shows common sense in. If I heard him once I heard him say half-a-dozen times, that he must have money:— "I must have money!" And so he must if he 's to head the Radicals. He wants to start a newspaper! Is he likely to get money from his uncle Romfrey?'
'Not for his present plan of campaign.' Colonel Halkett enunciated the military word sarcastically. 'Let's hope he won't get money.'
'He says he must have it.'
'Who is to stand and deliver, then?'
'I don't know; I only repeat what he says: unless he has an eye on my Aunt Beauchamp; and I doubt his luck there, if he wants money for political campaigning.'
'Money!' Colonel Halkett ejaculated.
That word too was in the heart of the heiress.
Nevil must have money! Could he have said it? Ordinary men might say or think it inoffensively; Captain Baskelett, for instance: but not Nevil Beauchamp.