The Adventures of Roderick Random

Revenge on Melinda

Revenge on Melinda

The narrator becomes consumed with the desire to be revenged on Melinda, whose rejection has stung his pride. He enlists the help of Banter, whose misanthropical temperament makes him eager to devise a scheme against the proud coquette. Banter proposes not only providing the narrator with a partner for the assembly, but also procuring a ridiculous partner for Melinda herself. He recruits his own barber, a vain coxcomb recently returned from Paris, and convinces the man that Melinda has been captivated by his appearance and desires his acquaintance. Dressed in Banter’s tawdry clothes and introduced by Chatter as a man of fortune newly arrived from his travels, the barber is presented to Melinda at the ball. His absurd affectation passes for the sprightly politesse of a travelled gentleman, and the trap is set.

Alliance with Billy Chatter for Revenge

Alliance with Billy Chatter for Revenge

The narrator secures the alliance of Billy Chatter, a society go-between who engages the men at all private dances and is intimately connected with the ladies of the town. Having heard something of a difference between Melinda and the narrator, Chatter at once guesses the design and promises to match the narrator with a partner worth thirty thousand pounds at the next assembly. He undertakes to bespeak Melinda on behalf of Banter’s barber, and every arrangement falls into place according to the narrator’s wish.

Miss Gripewell’s Background

Miss Gripewell’s Background

Miss Biddy Gripewell, the heiress Chatter proposes as the narrator’s partner, is the daughter of a deceased pawnbroker who died intestate. Because the old man could not bring himself to pay for a will, Biddy inherits his entire substance rather than a mere sixth part. During her father’s lifetime she was kept like a servant wench, performing menial offices, but upon his death she assumed the airs of a fine lady. Lacking discretion and experience, she has grown insufferably vain and arrogant, aspiring to no less than a duke or earl. The English quality neglect her, though a poor Scottish lord courts her acquaintance. A scheming lady has already secretly disposed of her to a lieutenant of foot, and Biddy herself is as yet unaware of the arrangement. To dance with her, the narrator must allow Chatter to present him as a knight or foreign count.