ir of a Court of
Equity to discuss the point with him.

'Then you defend that letter?' he cried.

Oh, no: she did not defend the letter; she thought it wicked and
senseless. 'But,' said she, 'the superior strength of men to women seems
to me to come from their examining all subjects, shrinking from none. At
least, I should not condemn Nevil on account of his correspondence.'

'We shall see,' said her father, sighing rather heavily. 'I must have a
talk with Mr. Romfrey about that letter.'

CHAPTER XXX. THE BAITING OF DR. SHRAPNEL

Captain Baskelett went down from Mount Laurels to Bevisham to arrange
for the giving of a dinner to certain of his chief supporters in the
borough, that they might know he was not obliged literally to sit in
Parliament in order to pay a close attention to their affairs. He had
not distinguished himself by a speech during the session, but he had
stored a political precept or two in his memory, and, as he told Lord
Palmet, he thought a dinner was due to his villains. 'The way to manage
your Englishman, Palmet, is to dine him.' As the dinner would decidedly
be dull, he insisted on having Lord Palmet's company.

They crossed over to the yachting island, where portions of the letter
of Commander Beauchamp's correspondent were read at the Club, under the
verandah, and the question put, whether a man who held those opinions
had a right to wear his uniform.

The letter was transmitted to Steynham in time to be consigned to the
pocket-book before Beauchamp arrived there on one of his rare visits.
Mr. Romfrey handed him the pocketbook with the frank declaration that he
had read Shrapnel's letter. 'All is fair in war, Sir!' Beauchamp quoted
him ambiguously.

The thieves had amused Mr. Romfrey by their scrupulous honesty in
returning what was useless to them, while reserving the coat: but
subsequently seeing the advertized reward, they had written to claim it;
and, according to Rosamund Culling, he had been so tickled that he had
deigned to reply to them, very briefly, but very comically.

Speaking of the matter with her, Beauchamp said (so greatly was he
infatuated with the dangerous man) that the reading of a letter of Dr.
Shrapnel's could do nothing but good to any reflecting human creature:
he admitted that as the lost pocket-book was addressed to Mr. Romfrey,
it might have been by mistake that he had opened it, and read the
topmost letter lying open. But he pressed Rosamund to say whet