Evelina | Page 5

that I have so many years remained unmolested,
than repine at my present embarrassment; since it proves, at least, that
this wretched woman is at length awakened to remorse.
In regard to my answer, I must humbly request your Ladyship to write
to this effect: "That I would not, upon any account, intentionally offend
Madame Duval; but that I have weighty, nay unanswerable reasons for
detaining her grand-daughter at present in England; the principal of
which is, that it was the earnest desire of one to whose will she owes
implicit duty. Madame Duval may be assured, that she meets with the
utmost attention and tenderness; that her education, however short of
my wishes, almost exceeds my abilities; and I flatter myself, when the
time arrives that she shall pay her duty to her grand-mother, Madame
Duval will find no reason to be dissatisfied with what has been done for
her."

Your Ladyship will not, I am sure, be surprised at this answer. Madame
Duval is by no means a proper companion or guardian for a young
woman: she is at once uneducated and unprincipled; ungentle in temper,
and unamiable in her manners. I have long known that she has
persuaded herself to harbour an aversion for me-Unhappy woman! I
can only regard her as an object of pity!
I dare not hesitate at a request from Mrs. Mirvan; yet, in complying
with it, I shall, for her own sake, be as concise as I possibly can; since
the cruel transactions which preceded the birth of my ward can afford
no entertainment to a mind so humane as her's.
Your Ladyship may probably have heard, that I had the honour to
accompany Mr. Evelyn, the grandfather of my young charge, when
upon his travels, in the capacity of a tutor. His unhappy marriage,
immediately upon his return to England, with Madame Duval, then a
waiting-girl at a tavern, contrary to the advice and entreaties of all his
friends, among whom I was myself the most urgent, induced him to
abandon his native land, and fix his abode in France. Thither he was
followed by shame and repentance; feelings which his heart was not
framed to support; for, notwithstanding he had been too weak to resist
the allurements of beauty, which nature, though a niggard to her of
every other boon, had with a lavish hand bestowed on his wife; yet he
was a young man of excellent character, and, till thus unaccountably
infatuated, of unblemished conduct. He survived this ill-judged
marriage but two years. Upon his death-bed, with an unsteady hand, he
wrote me the following note:
"My friend, forget your resentment, in favour of your humanity;-a
father, trembling for the welfare of his child, bequeaths her to your care.
O Villars! hear! pity! And relieve me!"
Had my circumstances permitted me, I should have answered these
words by an immediate journey to Paris; but I was obliged to act by the
agency of a friend, who was upon the spot, and present at the opening
of the will.
Mr. Evelyn left to me a legacy of a thousand pounds, and the sole

guardianship of his daughter's person till her eighteenth year; conjuring
me, in the most affecting terms, to take the charge of her education till
she was able to act with propriety for herself; but, in regard to fortune,
he left her wholly dependent on her mother, to whose tenderness he
earnestly recommended her.
Thus, though he would not, to a woman low-bred and illiberal as Mrs.
Evelyn, trust the conduct and morals of his daughter, he nevertheless
thought proper to secure to her the respect and duty to which, from her
own child, were certainly her due; but unhappily, it never occurred to
him that the mother, on her part, could fail in affection or justice.
Miss Evelyn, Madam, from the second to the eighteenth year of her life,
was brought up under my care, and, except when at school under my
roof. I need not speak to your Ladyship of the virtues of that excellent
young creature. She loved me as her father; nor was Mrs. Villars less
valued by her; while to me she became so dear, that her loss was little
less afflicting than that which I have since sustained of Mrs. Villars
herself.
At that period of her life we parted; her mother, then married to
Monsieur Duval, sent for her to Paris. How often have I since regretted
that I did not accompany her thither! Protected and supported by me,
the misery and disgrace which awaited her might perhaps have been
avoided. But, to be brief-Madame Duval, at the instigation of her
husband, earnestly, or rather tyrannically, endeavoured to effect a union
between Miss Evelyn and one of his nephews. And, when she found