A Guardian's Protective Concerns — Evelina, Or, the History of a Young Lady's Entrance into the World

On 12 March Villars writes that he is grieved to appear obstinate, and that he blushes at the imputation of selfishness. He did not keep Evelina in the country only to please himself. She is destined, in all probability, to a very moderate fortune, and he wished to contract her views to something within it. The mind is prone to pleasure and too easily yielded to dissipation. He has studied to guard her by preparing her to expect those delusions and to despise them. The time now draws on for experience and observation to take the place of instruction. If he has made her capable of using one with discretion and the other with improvement, he will rejoice. She is of an age when happiness is eager to attend. Let her enjoy it. He commits her to Lady Howard, and only hopes she may be found worthy of half the goodness she will meet. For that absence he feels no uneasiness but the loss of her company. He will be as convinced of her safety as if she were under his own roof.

He then asks whether Howard can be serious about the gaieties of a London life, and for what end. A youthful mind is seldom free from ambition. To curb that is the first step to contentment, since to diminish expectation is to increase enjoyment. He apprehends nothing more than raising hopes which her natural vivacity would make too easy. Mrs Mirvan's town acquaintance are all in the circle of high life. This artless girl has too much beauty to escape notice, too much sensibility to be indifferent to it, and too little wealth to be sought with propriety by men of fashion. She is the only child of a wealthy baronet whose person she has never seen, whose character she has reason to abhor, and whose name she is forbidden to claim. She is entitled to inherit his fortune and estate, yet there is little probability he will own her. While he perseveres in disavowing his marriage with Miss Evelyn, she shall never, at the expense of her mother's honour, receive a part of her right as the donation of his bounty. As to Mr Evelyn's estate, Villars has no doubt that Madame Duval and her relations will dispose of it among themselves. Legally heiress to two large fortunes, she must owe her rational expectations to adoption and friendship. Her income may make her happy in private life. It will not allow the luxury of a London fine lady. Let Miss Mirvan shine. Let his child keep the pleasures of humble retirement, and a mind to which greater views are unknown.

He has one more motive. He would not willingly offend any human being. Duval might accuse him of injustice if, while he refuses to let the granddaughter wait upon her, he consents to a party of pleasure in London. In sending Evelina to Howard Grove, none of these scruples arise. Mrs Clinton, formerly her nurse and now his housekeeper, shall attend her there next week. He has always called her Anville, and reported in the neighbourhood that her father, his intimate friend, left her to his guardianship. He has also thought it necessary that she herself know the melancholy circumstances of her birth, so that chance cannot shock her with a tale of so much sorrow. He warns Howard not to expect too much. The pupil is quite a little rustic. Dorchester, the nearest town, is seven miles off, and Howard may discover a thousand deficiencies he has never dreamt of. He asks a faithful relation of what she observes. Miss Mirvan is free to shine in town. Evelina is promised only as far as Howard Grove.