his own, and then, disguised as a highwayman, he assaults
her with the collusion of his servants, tears her clothes, and leaves
her half dead with terror, tied with ropes, at the bottom of a ditch.
When Mme. Duval relates her ill-treatment to her granddaughter, Evelina
could only find occasion to say: "Though this narrative almost
compelled me to laugh, yet I was really irritated with the captain, for
carrying his love of tormenting--sport, he calls it to such harshness
and unjustifiable extremes." And Miss Burney expected, no doubt with
reason, that her reader would be amused by all this.

In the same work a nobleman and a fashionable commoner are described
as settling a bet by a race between two decrepit women over eighty
years of age. "When the signal was given for them to set off, the
poor creatures, feeble and frightened, ran against each other: and
neither of them being able to support the shock, they both fell on
the ground. * * * Again they set off, and hobbled along, nearly even
with each other, for some time, yet frequently, to the inexpressible
diversion of the company, they stumbled and tottered. * * * Not long
after, a foot of one of the poor women slipped, and with great force
she came again to the ground. * * * Mr. Coverley went himself to help
her, and insisted that the other should stop. A debate ensued, but the
poor creature was too much hurt to move, and declared her utter
inability to make another attempt. Mr. Coverley was quite brutal; he
swore at her with unmanly rage, and seemed scarce able to refrain even
from striking her." It would be impossible perhaps to find a party of
the upper ranks gathered at a country house at the present time,
composed of persons who could have endured, without remonstrance, such
treatment of a pair of superannuated horses; yet Miss Burney describes
the efforts and sufferings of these old women as affording
inexpressible diversion to the ladies and gentlemen who figure in her
novel, and she evidently expects the reader to be equally entertained.
"Evelina" was written by a young woman who saw the best society, who
was maid of honor to Queen Charlotte, who was universally admired for
her delicacy and her talents, and whose novels are among the most
refined of the time.

The higher ranks were much less influenced by the religious revival
than the lower. Although certainly not less in need of reformation,
they were far less inclined to welcome it. The fashionable indiffer