ter Captain Baskelett had gone, Colonel Halkett persisted in talking of
the letter, and would have impressed on his daughter that the person to
whom the letter was addressed must be partly responsible for the contents
of it. Cecilia put on the argumentative air 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'