Joy, Monkeys, and Marriage Plans — Evelina, Or, the History of a Young Lady's Entrance into the World

Evelina cannot sleep. Great joy is as restless as sorrow, so she keeps her journal and joins a party formed to show her Bath. Three phaetons set out after breakfast, and she rides with Lord Orville. They have hardly gone half a mile when Captain Mirvan's post-chaise overtakes them, calling for Miss Anville. He hears she is Miss Belmont now, asks after old Madame French, and has brought Maria. The friend she needs is suddenly in the road, and so is the man who means to make sport.

At the pump-room the Crescent is a broad pavement with a view of Prior Park and the Avon, and it still wants the elegance she expected. The public bath, bonnets and all, seems indelicate because anyone may look. Lovel's half-hour spent choosing his clothes becomes Mirvan's target. Orville alone speaks gravely of the encouragement Bath gives to gamesters. After dinner Mirvan has a dressed monkey hauled in and asks if anyone ever saw anything more like. The creature springs, clings to Lovel's neck, and fastens its teeth on his ear. Orville seizes it, makes it loosen the ear, and flings it out. Coverley and Merton urge a duel. Lovel will not fight a man who has done nothing but fight, and once he hopes the cheek is no worse he calls the affront a trifle and leaves. Mirvan's triumph is intolerable.

Letters come from Howard Grove with kind congratulations, and from Madame Duval, who rejoices, pleads a cold, reports that Polly Branghton will marry Mr. Brown, complains that Monsieur Du Bois has gone back to France without her, and assures Evelina she shall be sole heiress of all Duval is worth when she is Lady Orville. There is not a word from Villars until evening, when a mislaid letter is brought. Evelina cannot read it. She puts it into Orville's hands. He kisses it, presses her hand to his heart, and says she is now all his own. She can make no reply, and she hardly speaks again that evening.

While the rest of the company sit down to cards, Evelina, Maria, and Lord Orville keep to their own talk, which is the quiet she has not had all day. She hopes a few lines will go express on Thursday, so Villars may be certain of the meeting. For the first time, and probably the last, she signs herself Evelina Belmont. Lady Louisa, Maria, and Mrs. Selwyn will be present. Macartney will the same morning marry her foster-sister, and her father will give them both away. The consent is in the house. She still means to send a few certain lines on Thursday, if nothing intervenes. The guardian who must still see her, and bless the meeting in person, is not.