Since the ultimate disaster of adventurous heroines was regarded as a
sop to moral readers, Mrs. Haywood frequently failed to gratify her
audience with a happy ending, but occasionally a departure from strict
virtue might be condoned, provided it took place in a country far
removed from England. The scene of "The Padlock: or, No Guard without
Virtue"[14] was appropriately laid in Spain.

Don Lepidio of Seville, by his jealous conduct, completely alienates the
affections of his young and beautiful wife, Violante. She finally writes
a reply to the earnest entreaties of an unknown lover, and though filled
with apprehension at seeing her letter carried off by an ugly black
slave, agrees to meet him. Don Honorius, for it was he who had assumed
the disguise of the slave, proves to be the wonder of his sex. He
persuades her to elope to the house of one of his relations, and after
Lepidio has secured a divorce, marries her with great felicity.

That novels of intrigue, even without the tinsel of court dress and the
romance of French or Spanish setting, were acceptable to Eliza Haywood's
public is shown by the two parts of "The Masqueraders: or, Fatal
Curiosity" (1724-5), which in the most luscious language of passion
narrate the philanderings of a "charming Rover" called Dorimenus, "whose
real Name, for some Reasons, I shall conceal." London masquerades, as
the title indicates, play a large part in the plot. A more sprightly
tale, though still of the unedifying sort, is "Fantomina: or, Love in a
Maze. Being the Secret History of an Amour between two Persons of
Condition." The story is so fantastic that it can hardly be suspected of
having any connection with an actual occurrence, but the novelist was
not unaware of the advertising value of hinted scandal.