“That man has done Nevil Beauchamp a world of mischief, Romfrey.”
“We’ll hope for a cure, colonel.”
“Did the man come across you?”
“He did.”
Mr. Romfrey was mute on the subject. Colonel Halkett abstained from pushing his inquiries.
Cecilia could only tell her father when they were alone in the drawing-room a few minutes before dinner that Mrs. Culling was entirely ignorant of any cause to which Nevil’s absence might be attributed.
“Mr. Romfrey had good cause,” the colonel said, emphatically.
He repeated it next day, without being a bit wiser of the cause.
Cecilia’s happiness or hope was too sensitive to allow of a beloved father’s deceiving her in his opposition to it.
She saw clearly now that he had fastened on this miserable incident, expecting an imbroglio that would divide Nevil and his uncle, and be an excuse for dividing her and Nevil. O for the passionate will to make head against what appeared as a fate in this matter! She had it not.