We start off with the 18th case of mistaken identity and 47th fistfight of the book.
Some Irishman has come to the Inn late at night, looking for his wife. The maid assumes that he’s talking about Mrs. Waters, leads him to her room. He bursts in, sees clothing from two people scattered all over, a female in the bed and Tom jumping out of it to see who burst in. The stranger starts attacking Tom. Another Irishman is staying in the next room (I’m not going to bother trying to introduce them), a friend, and he comes charging in—only to help him realize that Mrs. Waters isn’t his wife. The two leave and Tom goes back to bed.
The maid and landlady discuss the events of the evening, only to be interrupted by a lady’s maid and her lady coming to take a room. After getting them settled, the maid comes down, looking for food and gets to talking things over with the inn’s made and Partridge. One thing leads to another and Patridge reveals to Mrs. Honour (naturally, that’s who the lady’s maid is) that Tom’s here with Mrs. Waters.
Partridge does a little more damage that I really don’t care enough to recap. Mrs. Honour tells Sophia about it, she’s highly offended (not realizing it was Partridge telling tales out of school, not Tom) and arranges to leave the fabled muff (which, of course, she has on her) and a note in Tom’s room.
There are a couple of stylistic moments that seem different from the rest of the book—as I’m currently at page 546, that’s no mean feat. They were nice touches, but I’m glad they’re just touches. Even without that, Fielding’s voice was as strong as ever, and I chuckled as much as I rolled my eyes at these silly circumstances.
Looking forward to seeing Tom dig himself out of this hole.
Lashaan Balasingam
Them fistfights are nuuuuumerous! How many pages does a post like this end up summarizing? 100? 😮
HCNewton
Well, there was a little bit of hyperbole there, but without flipping through the book/checking notes, I can think of 10 so far. Which does still keep it, pound for pound, at or above Lee Child level.
So I’m doing roughly four chapters a week (6 chapters for two weeks in a row if I miss one), which can range from 15-50. I think this one was 30+/-. Little bite-sized chunks that are enough to keep me moving, but not enough to overwhelm me.