Religious Cautions Against Showing Too much Favour to Bastards; and a Great Discovery Made By Mrs. Deborah Wilkins
- Eight months after Captain Blifil and Bridget Allworthy get married, Bridget has a baby boy.
- Squire Allworthy is excited about his new nephew.
- He also loves the little baby that Jenny Jones left for him, whom he calls Tom.
- Squire Allworthy thinks his nephew and little Tom should be raised together.
- Captain Blifil doesn't think much of this idea.
- In fact, he thinks that little Tom should be punished for the crime of being born outside of marriage (as though baby Tom has any say in the behavior of his parents, right?).
- Squire Allworthy tells Captain Blifil it's pretty immoral to want to punish a child for its parents' sins.
- Obviously, Captain Blifil is mainly worried that Squire Allworthy will leave his money to Tom instead of baby Blifil in his will.
- Mrs. Wilkins, meanwhile, is 100% sure that she has figured out the secret father of Tom.