The Case for Fighting Back — Evelina, Or, the History of a Young Lady's Entrance into the World

Lady Howard takes a liberty she says only Villars's candour could excuse. She will advise him on a matter he has the right to decide, and she trusts his love of justice more than any fondness for his own judgment. Madame Duval's scheme put the household in commotion. Howard exclaimed against it with the rest, then found her objections almost gone. The plan is a lawsuit with Sir John Belmont, to prove his marriage with Miss Evelyn and to secure his fortune and estate for his daughter.

She knows the first hearing must shock him. She argues that his mind will not be ruled by prejudice, or by a few disagreeable circumstances around an important cause. Evelina's merit, formed by the education he gave her, ought not to stay buried. Nature has been bountiful, fortune has so far been sparing, and the way to what remains is now open. Howard does not know why he concealed the birth, the name, and the pretensions, and she respects those reasons without knowing them. She hopes they are not beyond moving. A girl who seems meant to grace the world was not, she thinks, designed for a life of retirement. The admiration in town was only for looks, yet Mrs. Mirvan says there would have been splendid offers if the birth had not been wrapped in mystery. Surely Belmont, wretch as he has shown himself, could not see this daughter and refuse to own her.

To despise riches may be philosophic. To dispense them worthily, Howard writes, does more good. She also sets a clock on the plan. He is still young, and he lives too dissipated a life for anyone to count on length of years. After he is gone, heirs and executors will make proof nearly impossible. His ward has made her too warm a friend for a cool letter. She asks him to send, speedily, an answer to the remonstrance. That answer is not in this letter. Howard Grove is waiting on Berry Hill.