 read through by
Mr. Romfrey, and handed by him to Captain Baskelett, who had read it out in
various places, Mr. Austin said: »A strange couple!« He appeared perplexed by
his old friend's approval of them. »There we decidedly differ,« said he, when
the case of Dr. Shrapnel was related by the colonel, with a refusal to condemn
Mr. Romfrey. He pronounced Mr. Romfrey's charges against Dr. Shrapnel, taken in
conjunction with his conduct, to be baseless, childish, and wanton. The colonel
would not see the case in that light; but Cecilia did. It was a justification of
Beauchamp; and how could she ever have been blind to it? - scarcely blind, she
remembered, but sensitively blinking her eyelids to distract her sight in
contemplating it, and to preserve her repose. As to Beauchamp's demand of the
apology, Mr. Austin considered that it might be an instance of his want of
knowledge of men, yet could not be called silly, and to call it insane was the
rhetoric of an adversary.
    »I do call it insane,« said the colonel.
    He separated himself from his daughter by a sharp division.
    Had Beauchamp appeared at Mount Laurels, Cecilia would have been ready to
support and encourage him, boldly. Backed by Mr. Austin, she saw some good in
Dr. Shrapnel's writing, much in Beauchamp's devotedness. He shone clear to her
reason, at last: partly because her father in his opposition to him did not, but
was on the contrary unreasonable, cased in mail, mentally clouded. She sat with
Mr. Austin and her father, trying repeatedly, in obedience to Beauchamp's
commands, to bring the latter to a just contemplation of the unhappy case;
behaviour on her part which rendered the colonel inveterate.
    Beauchamp at this moment was occupied in doing secretary's work for Dr.
Shrapnel. So Cecilia learnt from Mr. Lydiard, who came to pay his respects to
Mrs. Wardour-Devereux at Mount Laurels. The pursuit of the apology was continued
in letters to his uncle and occasional interviews with him, which were by no
means instigated by the doctor, Mr. Lydiard informed the ladies. He described
Beauchamp as acting in the spirit of a man who has sworn an oath to abandon
every pleasure in life, that he may, as far as it lies in his power, indemnify
his friend for the wrong done to him.
    »Such men are too terrible for me,« said Mrs. Devereux.
