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612 THE ADVENTURES OF PHILIP
"The way in which those people patronised Philip and dear
Charlotte was perfectly intolerable. Lady Ringwood knows how
dreadful the conduct of that Mr. Ringwood is, and—and I have
no patience with her !" How, I repeat, do women know about
men ? How do they telegraph to each other their notices of alarm
and mistrust ? and fly as birds rise up with a rush and a skurry
when danger appears to be near 1 All this was very well. But
Mr. Tregarvan heard some account of the dispute between Philip
and Mr. Ringwood, and applied to Sir John for further particulars ;
and Sir John—liberal man as he was and ever had been, and
priding himself little, Heaven knew, on the privilege of rank, which
was merely adventitious—was constrained to confess that this
young man's conduct showed a great deal too much laissez aller.
He had constantly, at Sir John's own house, manifested an independence
which had bordered on rudeness ; he was always notorious
for his quarrelsome disposition, and lately had so disgraced himself
in a scene with Sir John's eldest son, Mr. Ringwood—had exhibited
such brutality, ingratitude, and—and inebriation, that Sir John
was free to confess he had forbidden the gentleman his door.
" An insubordinate, ill-conditioned fellow, certainly !" thinks
Tregarvan. (And I do not say, though Philip is my friend, that
Tregarvan and Sir John were altogether wrong regarding their
protégé.) Twice Tregarvan had invited him to breakfast, and
Philip had not appeared. More than once he had contradicted
Tregarvan about the Review. He had said that the Review was
not getting on, and if you asked Philip his candid opinion, it would
not get on. Six numbers had appeared, and it did not meet with
that attention which the public ought to pay to it. The public
was careless as to the designs of that Great Power, which it was
Tregarvan's aim to defy and confound. He took counsel with
himself. He walked over to the publisher's, and inspected the
books ; and the result of that inspection was so disagreeable, that
he went home straightway and wrote a letter to Philip Firmin,
Esq., New Milman Street, Guilford Street, which that poor fellow
brought to his usual advisers.
That letter contained a cheque for a quarter's salary, and bade
adieu to Mr. Firmin. The writer would not recapitulate the causes
of dissatisfaction which he felt respecting the conduct of the Review.
He was much disappointed in its progress, and dissatisfied with its
general management. He thought an opportunity was lost which
never could be recovered for exposing the designs of a Power which
menaced the liberty and tranquillity of Europe. Had it been
directed with proper energy that Review might have been an aegis
to that threatened liberty, a lamp to lighten the darkness of that