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Fiction

Notes would be more effectual if he could incorporate some of the Host’s practical wisdom; after all,
the Host is no covetous misanthrope in spite of his sober realism, for he has just taken a risk
on Adams by extending credit to him when Adams has admitted how difficult it will be for
him to pay it back. Fortunately, Joseph, as Adams’s protégé, seems to be incorporating experience
into his parson’s Christian teaching rather effectively: he has suspected the Squire as a phony
from the start, and eventually he passes judgment on him with a maxim that is the fruit of the
accumulated wisdom of generations of footmen. Whereas at the beginning of the novel Joseph
could not believe that Lady Booby, being socially so superior, could ever condescend to proposition
her own servant, by now he has begun to look on the upper classes and the world with an eye
not cynical but definitely more experienced.

3.4 Summary

• Mr. Adams and Mrs. Slipslop discuss the recent developments in the Booby family.

• Leonora was the daughter of a wealthy gentleman and the possessor of many superficial
charms.
• Mr. Adams encounters Joseph, who is in the kitchen recovering from a riding accident
with the aid of the Hostess.
• The woman Adams has rescued does not entirely trust him, worrying that he may be no
better a companion than was her attacker.
• Fielding clarifies that Mrs. Slipslop has not forgotten her old coworker Fanny Goodwill

but has merely asserted her social prerogative in cutting her.
• Mr. Adams returns to Joseph and Fanny, where Joseph suggests as a last resort that they

ask the Hostess, a sour-faced old woman, to trust them to pay their bill later.
3.5 Keywords

Litigious : tending to go to law to settle disputes.
Frivolous : not having any serious purpose or value.
Robust : not perturbed by or attending to subtleties.
Omnipotent : having unlimited or very great power.

3.6 Review Questions

1. Who was Leonora? Explain.

2. Write briefly about Parson Trulliber.
3. Who were proposed to Leonora and why?
4. Why Leonora acted as a nurse of Bellarmine?

Answers: Self Assessment

1. (c) 2. (a)
3. (d) 4. (b)
5. Younger Strives 6. Young Guide
7. Sunday

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