d chosen the tedious route for the purpose of
visiting this lady, whose champion he was?

So she went to Steynham, and for hours she heard talk of no one, of
nothing, but her friend Nevil. Cecilia was on her guard against
Rosamund's defence of his conduct in France. The declaration that there
had been no misbehaviour at all could not be accepted; but the news of
Mr. Romfrey's having installed Nevil in Holdesbury to manage that
property, and of his having mooted to her father the question of an
alliance between her and Nevil, was wonderful. Rosamund could not say
what answer her father had made: hardly favourable, Cecilia supposed,
since he had not spoken of the circumstance to her. But Mr. Romfrey's
influence with him would certainly be powerful.

It was to be assumed, also, that Nevil had been consulted by his uncle.
Rosamund said full-heartedly that this alliance had for years been her
life's desire, and then she let the matter pass, nor did she once loop at
Cecilia searchingly, or seem to wish to probe her. Cecilia disagreed with
Rosamund on an insignificant point in relation to something Mr. Romfrey
and Captain Baskelett had done, and, as far as she could recollect
subsequently, there was a packet of letters, or a pocket-book containing
letters of Nevil's which he had lost, and which had been forwarded to Mr.
Romfrey; for the pocket-book was originally his, and his address was
printed inside. But among these letters was one from Dr. Shrapnel to
Nevil: a letter so horrible that Rosamund frowned at the reminiscence of
it, holding it to be too horrible for the quotation of a sentence. She
owned she had forgotten any three consecutive words. Her known dislike of
Captain Baskelett, however, was insufficient to make her see that it was
unjustifiable in him to run about London reading it, with comments of the
cruellest. Rosamund's greater detestation of Dr. Shrapnel blinded her to
the offence committed by the man she would otherwise have been very ready
to scorn. So small did the circumstance appear to Cecilia,
notwithstanding her gentle opposition at the time she listened to it,
that she never thought of mentioning it to her father, and only
remembered it when Captain Baskelett, with Lord Palmet in his company,
presented himself at Mount Laurels, and proposed to the colonel to read
to him 'a letter from that scoundrelly old Shrapnel to Nevil Beauchamp,
upon women, wives, thrones, republics, British loyalty, et caetera,'--