Tom Jones Book 1, Chapter 12

Containing What the Reader May, Perhaps, Expect to Find In It

• Less than a month after all of this courting, Captain Blifil and Bridget elope together.
• Dr. Blifil then goes to break the news to Squire Allworthy.
• Squire Allworthy is surprisingly okay with the whole thing: he believes that people should marry for love. (Revolutionary, right?)
• He goes off on a long sermon:
• (a) Beauty is a nice thing, but it's wrong to marry for beauty alone.
• (b) While money is important, it's still wrong to get married just for money.
• Dr. Blifil listens quietly to all of this, even though he doesn't always agree—he's smart enough to know when to shut up and listen to the guy who pays his bills.