Finding Your Place Among the Elite — Evelina, Or, the History of a Young Lady's Entrance into the World

September 20 Evelina lodges at Clifton under the same roof as Lord Orville, which alone makes bearable a house that otherwise treats her as inferior. Mrs. Selwyn reports Lovel's malice: while Orville spoke with Evelina, Louisa asked who she was and Lovel called her a toad-eater who attended Miss Mirvan last spring. Selwyn advises flattering Lovel because fashion grants him harm; Evelina refuses duplicity toward a man she scorns.

Beaumont receives them civilly; Louisa scarcely sees them. After tea, while ladies play cards, Orville who does not play talks with Evelina for hours. Constraint wears away; his benevolence restores cheerfulness. He explains the bet lowered to one hundred pounds and will be decided by a race between two women over eighty chosen by each side, then praises her unhackneyed reason that fashion makes absurdities pass uncensured.

Three days at Clifton grow serene: he walks, reads, and dines beside her with attentions that raise rather than sink her in his opinion. Mrs. Selwyn, always talking, cannot mother her socially, so Orville treats her as helpless stranger entitled to protection. Evelina hopes depreciating judgment has yielded to partial regard these happy days would repay months of sorrow.