Lord Orville's Warning — Evelina, Or, the History of a Young Lady's Entrance into the World

On 1 July, listless after her last letter, Evelina sits at the window and sees Lord Orville's coronet coach. She retreats. The coach stops at the door. The maid forgets to send up his name, and he walks in. She receives him awkwardly, alone, in lodgings where even civility is unknown. He asks leave to sit, then, low and hesitating, whether the women from Marybone were ever in her company before. She rises, denies it, and says they never will be again. He owns the question was abrupt. He had no doubt of her. Credulity, he says, is the sister of innocence, and he feared she might be deceived. She tells him the fireworks accident. He thanks her for what he calls her condescension, presses her hand to his lips, and leaves when Duval sends for breakfast upstairs.

At breakfast Duval asks if she would like to be married. Branghton has proposed his son. Duval still has grander views if Paris will own Evelina. If not, she thinks of leaving her fortune between the two relations. She charges Evelina neither wholly to discourage the young man nor yet to accept him. Evelina declares her aversion. Duval ends as she began: the girl shall not have him if she can do better.

After dinner Du Bois finds her alone, puts a note in her hand, and leaves the house. The note declares an attachment he says he would not have confessed, except that Duval destined her to young Branghton, a match he cannot endure. He asks pardon, professes respect, and commits his fate to time, patience, and pity. She will not tell Duval. She believes she can discourage him. The morning's esteem and the day's two schemes now sit in the same house, and a man she had begun to think well of is waiting on her answer.