Tom Jones Book 13, Chapter 11

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.