Godolphin. The Crofts circulate rumours of Emmeline's infidelity to Delamere and when he visits her and sees her with Adelina's child, he assumes the child is hers and abandons her. Emmeline then travels to France with Mrs. Stafford and Augusta, where she discovers her parents were actually married and that she deserves to inherit Mowbray Castle. Lord Montreville hands the estate over to her, after discovering he was duped by the Crofts. Delamere becomes ill upon discovering that Emmeline was never unfaithful to him. She nurses him, but refuses to marry him. His mother dies in her anxiety over his condition and he dies fighting a duel over his sister's lover. In the end, Emmeline marries Godolphin. Themes Marriage Emmeline criticises the traditional marriage arrangements of the 18th century, which allowed women little choice and prioritised the needs of the family. Mrs. Stafford, for example, is married quite young to a man with whom she has little in common; only her love for her children keeps her in the marriage (children legally belonged to their father at this time). She has the opportunity to take a lover, but she rejects this option. The novel's plot reveals the consequences for a woman who does choose this route. Adelina, who was also married young and is unhappy, accepts a lover (the same one Mrs. Stafford rejects). As Fletcher explains, the doubling of the two characters invites a comparison and “in keeping with the increasingly liberal tone of the time the narrator allows Adelina to be happy in the end.” The doubling also “suggest[s] that 'good' and 'bad' women have more in common that some readers were prepared to accept in 1788”. Unlike in most 18th-century novels, the "fallen" woman does not die. As punishment, Adelina goes mad, but she is rewarded in the end—her husband dies and she remarries a man who makes her happy. Property Because Emmeline is thought to be illegitimate, she stands outside the official social structure for most of the novel. She must often choose between a family she claims as her own (the Montrevilles) and her own desires. As Fletcher explains, “she embodies a fantasy that has often engaged novel readers, the fantasy that a young woman can win devoted love and overcome all difficulties by her personal qualities alone, without the help of family or dowry.” In writing a version of the Cinderella fairy tale, Smith