A Father's Heart-Wrenching Goodbye — Evelina, Or, the History of a Young Lady's Entrance into the World

On 18 March Villars does not send a long case. He sends the girl, and the letter in her hand. He asks Lady Howard to understand who has arrived. This is his child, the child of his adoption, his affection. She is unblest with one natural friend, and she merits a thousand. The letter's first claim is that lack. Howard is not receiving a young woman who comes with a parent to speak for her. She comes with none, and Villars treats that fact as a reason she deserves many friends, not as a reason to lower the welcome.

He then names what he is putting into Howard's care. He sends her innocent as an angel, and artless as purity itself. He sends with her the heart of Howard's friend, the only hope he has on earth, the subject of his tenderest thoughts, and the object of his latest cares. She is the one person for whom he has lately wished to live. She is the one whom to serve he would with transport die. The sentences pile title on title because the handover is the whole of the note. Howard is not being asked to finish an education or to launch a fortune. She is being asked to hold the person on whom Villars says his remaining life depends.

He does not add a plan for London, a warning about Duval, or a list of rules. He asks one thing back. Restore her but to him all innocence as Howard receives her, and the fondest hope of his heart will be amply gratified. He signs only A. Villars. The note ends on the innocence he is begging to see again.