A Note on Method xi
Prologue 3
Part I Pride
1. A Careless, Good-Humored Young Man 11
2. Left to Nature 17
3. The Plantation and the Pastures 23
4. Fine, Sprightly, Sensible Girls 28
5. "We Will Serve Our Country" 41
6. So Agreeable an Acquaintance 48
7. A Distressing Situation 67
8. An Unexpected Blessing 79
9. A Sort of Insanity 97
10. A Very Serious Thing 109
Part II Pleasure
11. "So, We Part" 123
12. Precarious Happiness 144
13. "The Way to Get Him" 163
14. Promises and Resolutions 173
15. "A Most Excellent Manager" 187
16. A Path Strewed with Roses 200
17. Aquileia 217
18. Love and Rivalship 233
19. Truly at Sea 246
20. "It'll Be Fine" 269
21. The Sharpest Thorns 287
22. "The Risk of My Life" 316
23. The Minister and the Man 338
24. The Approbation of the Good and Considerate 354
25. The Needle and the Hole 374
26. Near the Sun 387
27. Strategies and Tactics 402
28. The Important Change 423
29. Refuge in a Garden 446
30. The Unavoidable Interview 461
Part III Nameless Satisfactions
31. "My Hounded Heart" 479
32. "The Present State of Our Former Coterie" 499
33. All My Doubts and All My Fears 515
34. The Oratrix 530
35. "Our Favorite Subject" 541
36. The Little Red Hen 558
37. "The Most Interesting Business of My Protracted Life" 573
Acknowledgments 603
Notes 607
Index 677