Tom Jones Book 5, Chapter 2

In Which Mr. Jones Receives Many Friendly Visits During His Confinement; With Some Fine Touches of the Passion of Love, Scarce Visible to the Naked Eye

• As Tom sits in bed waiting for his arm to heal, he gets lots of visitors.
• Squire Allworthy comes quite often, for one.
• But (unfortunately for Tom) he spends a lot of his visiting hours gently lecturing Tom on his past misdeeds.
• Mr. Thwackum also visits.
• He screams at Tom that his injury is a judgment from God of Tom's rotten character.
• Mr. Square reminds Tom that this injury has no moral implications at all. It's just, um, an injury.
• Master (now Mr., since he's grown up) Blifil comes sometimes, but never on his own.
• Mr. Blifil doesn't want Tom's bad influence to taint his own moral character. (What a little creep!)
• Squire Western also likes to hang out in Tom's sick room (regardless of how Tom is feeling or whether he is asleep or awake).
• Basically, Tom's time in bed would be an absolute nightmare, except for one thing.
• The lovely Sophia has also been keeping Tom company.
• One afternoon, she's playing music for Tom and her father.
• Squire Western launches into a long story about Tom.
• He tells Sophia that Tom wanted to put down Sophia's mare, the one that threw and almost killed her.
• Squire Western thinks that Tom wants revenge on the mare because of his own broken arm.
• But Sophia secretly realizes that Tom hates the mare because Tom hated seeing Sophia in danger.
• Tom sees Sophia blushing and figures out that she knows that he likes her.
• It dawns on Tom that he more than likes Sophia—he loves her. Aww, those crazy kids.