Yesterday, as soon as breakfast was over, Lord Orville went to the Hot Wells to wait upon Sir John with Evelina's double petition. Mrs. Beaumont proposes a walk in the garden. Mrs. Selwyn has letters to write. Lady Louisa rises to go, and the notice she gave Evelina at breakfast already suggests that her brother has told her the new situation. When Evelina would go upstairs, Louisa, instead of letting her pass disregarded, calls after her with an affected surprise and asks if Miss Anville does not walk with them. The sudden change seems little-minded. From an involuntary contempt, Evelina thanks her with a coldness like her own and declines. Louisa blushes hard. Because she is Lord Orville's sister, the indignation subsides, and Evelina joins the walk. Orville is not long absent. He comes into the garden with a gaiety that revives them, takes Evelina's hand, and asks leave to introduce her, by her real name, to two of his nearest relations.
She rides again to the Hot Wells, meets Mr. Macartney in the parlour, and goes up alone to her father. He calls her child and cries out for poor unhappy Caroline, then swings into frantic shame and orders her away for ever. Terrified, she moves toward the door, stops, and drops on her knees. She asks once to be blessed, and promises that her sight shall never more offend him. He says he is not worthy to bless her, not worthy to call her daughter, not worthy that the light should visit his eyes. She answers that she would soothe him if the sight of her were less terrible. He tells her to rise, and that it is for him to kneel. She takes from her pocketbook the last letter, still unopened, presses it to her lips, and holds it out. He snatches it, knows the writing, and asks why he did not have it sooner. At the window he reads. The letter falls. He calls her mother sainted and himself cursed. He casts himself on the ground, then blesses the kneeling daughter in a voice that says he dare not, embraces her, and still cannot sustain the presence he has just claimed. He goes.
When Evelina can return to the parlour, Lord Orville is waiting with the utmost anxiety. From Mr. Macartney she learns that Orville has insisted the so-long supposed Miss Belmont be considered her sister, and the co-heiress of her father: not in law, he says, but in justice. Her answer is not a speech she can finish. It shall be the sole study of her happy life to express, better than by words, the sense she has of his exalted benevolence and greatness of mind.
