Overheard Conversations and Wounded Pride — Evelina, Or, the History of a Young Lady's Entrance into the World

The same Tuesday, the troubles of the ball are not over. Between persuasion and laughter, Maria reports a dialogue from the card-room interval, while Evelina sat with Mrs Mirvan. A gay-looking man asks Lord Orville what he has done with his lovely partner. Orville answers "Nothing," shrugs, and laughs at the claim that she is the most beautiful creature the man ever saw. He allows her to be a pretty modest-looking girl, then a silent one, then, shaking his head, a poor weak girl. The man is glad to hear it. The fop joins them and apologises if he was too severe, because ill-breeding provokes a man. Orville says he was wholly ignorant of the provocation, and surprised at the resentment. The fop complains that a person who is nobody gave herself airs, and that diligent inquiry cannot learn who she is. The other man guesses she must be a country parson's daughter. The fop laughs, says he could have sworn it by her manners, and goes off to repeat the joke. Orville calls it a foolish affair. She refused the coxcomb and then danced with him. He will not determine whether she was ignorant or mischievous. She heard all he said with immovable gravity, and laughed only when Lovel began his complaint. Maria is called to dance and hears no more.

Evelina asks Villars if he ever knew anything more provoking. She resolves never again to be tempted to an assembly. She wishes she were in Dorsetshire. She is then unsurprised that Orville sends a servant in the morning to inquire after their health, and does not call, as Maria had thought he would. Perhaps, she says, a call is only a country custom. She would not live in London for the world. She is indifferent about the opera. She goes in ill humour and is pleased against her will. The music of a serious opera, the comic singer being ill, soothes her into the pleasure best suited to her disposition. She hopes to go again on Saturday. That night they go to Ranelagh. The lights make her think of an enchanted castle. The first person she sees is Lord Orville. He does not see her. Later he bows. She courtesies and colours. He does not follow, and though they meet several times he never speaks, being always with some party. She cannot but be hurt at the opinion he entertains of her. Her own behaviour incurred it, yet he seems the most amiable man in the world, and she grieves to be thought ill of by someone whose esteem is worth having. She thinks she has done with assemblies.

The morning meant for sights and auctions finds her with a headache and no humour to be amused. She makes the others go without her, then is sorry. They return entertained. At an auction in Pall Mall they meet Lord Orville, who sits next to Mrs Mirvan and talks a great deal. Evelina is given no account of the conversation. She may never have such another chance to see London, and she calls the missed outing a mortification she deserves for indulging her ill humour. They go to King Lear and she is made very sad. They see nobody they know. On Friday the Captain arrives. She has not spirits to describe the introduction, because he has shocked her. He seems surly, vulgar, and disagreeable. Almost as Maria is presented, he begins rude jests on the bad shape of her nose and calls her a tall ill-formed thing. Maria bears it with good humour. Evelina thinks Mrs Mirvan deserved a better lot, and she is amazed the marriage happened. She has been so shy she has hardly spoken to him. She cannot imagine why the family rejoiced at his return. If he had spent his whole life abroad, she would have supposed them thankful rather than sorrowful. On Saturday the opera pleases her still more, except for the continual talking, and she is glad not to sit next to the Captain, who cannot bear the music and is extremely gross about the singers. Afterwards they walk in the coffee-room, where ladies and gentlemen chat with the ease of a private room. On Monday they go to a ridotto. On Wednesday they return to Howard Grove. The Captain will not stay to be smoked with filth any longer. After seven years smoked with a burning sun, he will retire to the country and sink into a fair-weather chap. The ridotto is set for Monday. She has not yet decided what she will do with the resolve never to enter an assembly again.