In Which the Reader Will Be Surprized
- Tom arrives at Lady Bellaston's house before she finishes her dinner out.
- So Tom waits for Lady Bellaston in her drawing room.
- And who should come in to this drawing room? Sophia.
- A fight broke out at the play she was attending, so she had come home early.
- She walks right over to a mirror without noticing Tom.
- Once she notices Tom standing like a statue behind her, she screams.
- Tom throws himself to his knees in front of her.
- He gives her the book with the hundred pounds in it.
- He also wants to beg her forgiveness for what happened at Upton.
- He promises that his heart has never been unfaithful to her, even though he has slept with other women.
- Sophia tells him it's not infidelity that's making her angry at him.
- It's that he boasted about her love in various inns, even going so far as to say that he had to leave his home to escape her.
- Tom is totally shocked at this.
- Tom figures out that she heard some of the gossip spread by Partridge.
- Tom convinces Sophia that he really hasn't been bragging about her to random servants.
- The two of them quickly make up.
- Sophia finally asks Tom how he got to Lady Bellaston's house.
- Tom is like, um ——
- But luckily for Tom, Lady Bellaston walks in before Tom has to confess that he's having yet another affair.
- Lady Bellaston treats Tom as though she has never met him before in her life.
- Sophia also tells her only that Tom has come to return her book and bank note, which had gone missing so long ago.
- Tom catches the hints of both these ladies, and acts as though he's never met either of them before.
- Lady Bellaston is absolutely sure that this meeting between Tom and Sophia is no accident.
- But they all keep behaving as though they are strangers to each other.