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

Maria reports an overheard conversation: Lord Orville's friends praise Evelina's beauty while he calls her a silent, poor weak girl, ignorant or mischievous. Evelina, wounded, withdraws from sightseeing and nurses indignation while Mrs. Mirvan and Maria enjoy London without her.

Opera and Ranelagh partly soothe her, but at Ranelagh she sees Lord Orville from afar and grieves that he thinks ill of her. She skips a town outing from ill humour and regrets it when the others meet him at auction. Captain Mirvan finally arrives and shocks her with crude jokes at his own daughter's expense.

The chapter spans days of social pleasure and private mortification. Evelina begins to learn that overheard male talk can wound more than public blunders, and that hiding from society punishes the hider as much as the judged.