Evan Harrington — Volume 4

A series of epistolary and narrated episodes depicts aristocratic maneuvering around Evan and his circle, focusing on a Countess's urgent dispatches that orchestrate social salvage, gossip, and matchmaking. Lady Jocelyn shelters a runaway woman while tensions rise over an unsuitable marriage, presents intended to conceal scandal, and rival suitors and family interests jostle for advantage. Repeated scenes expose pretensions, factional diplomacy, and schemes involving Strike, a duke, and claims to lineage, interspersed with comic observations on manners and domestic anxieties. The volume blends satirical social commentary with plot movement as secrets, evasions, and inheritance calculations reshape relationships and prospects.