A young lady of distinguished birth, beauty, wit, and spirit for a frolic goes masked to the theatre, and there falling in love with the agreeable Beauplaisir, begins an intrigue with him.  When his ardor cools, she lures him on again under a different disguise, and thus manages four several liaisons successively as Fantomina, Celia the Chambermaid, the Widow Bloomer, and the fair Incognita.  Meanwhile she meets her lover frequently in public assemblies without ever arousing his suspicion of her double, or rather manifold identity.  But at length she is unable to disguise the effects of her imprudence, her gallant ungallantly refuses to marry her, and the fair intriguer is packed off to a convent in France.

Though the story cannot pretend to support the cause of morality, the style of this piece is unusually clear and straightforward, sometimes suitably periphrastic, but never inflated.  The passion described is that of real life ungarnished by romance.  Only greater refinement was needed to make the entertainment fit for ladies and gentlemen.

The cardinal defect of some of Mrs. Haywood’s romances-in-little lay, however, in a romantic over-refinement of the passions rather than in a too vigorous animalism.  Full of the most delicate scruples is “The Surprise:  or, Constancy Rewarded” (1724),[15] appropriately dedicated to the Sir Galahad of comedy, Sir Richard Steele.  The story relates how Euphemia discovers that the seemingly faithless Bellamant has, in reality, abandoned her on the day set for their marriage because he was unwilling to have her share in the loss of his fortune.  She, meanwhile, has inherited a convenient sum, redeems him from his creditors, and after practicing a little mystification to test his constancy, leads him to the altar.  Few of Mrs. Haywood’s novels are more entirely moral or more essentially dull.

Though the scene of “The Rash Resolve:  or, the Untimely Discovery” (1724) is laid in Porto Rico and in Spain, the romancer took little advantage of her opportunity to introduce the usual “cloak and sword” incidents of Spanish fiction.  Instead her tale is one of generous love and melting pathos more characteristic of the romance than of the novella or its successors.

The Porto Rican heiress, Emanuella, is defrauded of her fortune by her guardian, Don Pedro, and imprisoned in his house to force her to marry his son, Don Marco.  That generous lover helps her to escape to Madrid, and to emphasize the truth of her claims against his wily father, falls upon his sword in the presence of the court.  Emanuella’s title to her fortune cleared by this extraordinary measure, she continues to reside at the house of Don Jabin, whose daughter, Berillia, she saves from a monastery by making up the deficiency in her dowry.  The ungrateful girl, however, resents Emanuella’s disapproval of her foppish lover, and resolves to be revenged upon her benefactress.  She, therefore, forwards Emanuella’s affair with Emilius until the lovers are hopelessly compromised; then taking advantage of the loss of the lady’s fortune at sea, blackens her character to Emilius and provokes him to desert her.  The abandoned Emanuella enters a convent.